Polls will be open from 6 am to 8 pm Tuesday, April 22, at Newtown Middle School, so voters can decide the fate of the proposed 2025-26 municipal and education budgets. As is usual, The Newtown Bee is urging all eligible voters to go out and cast their vote.

While many get caught up in the drama and higher stakes of presidential elections, all votes are important parts of our democracy, and few have as much direct impacts on the day-to-day lives of Newtown residents as the yearly budget vote. This will affect the amount of services available to each resident and the taxes they pay to cover those services.

This year, voters are being asked to consider a proposed Board of Selectmen municipal budget of $49,866,665 and a proposed Board of Education budget of $91,744,644. The budgets include a 6.72% tax increase, as well as a 28.78 mill rate, a 1.81 increase from last year.

With this year’s votes more in doubt than in previous years, following last year’s failure of the education budget at its first referendum, ending a 10-year streak of one and done budget votes that went from 2014 to 2023, this year each vote is more important than ever and it would be great to see the town continue trending towards larger turnouts.

Last year saw increased engagement in the 2024 budget referendum, during which the feedback was negative — the education budget went down for the first time in 11 years. 1,701 No votes to 1,194 Yes votes, with a 15.1% turnout. In May, it passed 2075 Yes votes to 1198 No votes, with a turnout of 17.4%.

In 2023, Newtown had a turnout of approximately 8.8 percent, the first year of increased participation after years of waning participation, especially following the COVID pandemic. In 2022, participation was only 7.7 percent; in 2021, the turnout was 8.98 percent; in 2020, there was no budget referendum due to the pandemic; in 2019, turnout was 17 percent; in 2018, turnout was 15.7 percent; and in 2017, turnout was 19.9 percent.

Even at the 2017 and 2024 levels, the turnout was too low for such an important decision affecting every Newtown resident, in their pocketbooks, in their property values, and in their quality of life. Obviously, maintaining services keeps quality of life high and thus property values up, while it also gives residents some say in how much they will pay in property taxes. Many residents saw some increase in their assessments and property taxes due to large increases in home values across the country over the last few years.

Please, whether you are for this year’s budget or against, get out and vote.