With 3,385 ballots cast in local referendum voting April 25, voters measurably approved both the proposed municipal and school operating budgets for 2017-18, as well as all six capital project authorizations on the ballot.The Newtown Bee's Facebook pageView a video of the vote count announcement on

Despite a dreary and rainy day, nearly 20 percent (19.9%) of the town's 17,010 eligible voters turned out to the Newtown Middle School polling station.

While local voters were accustomed to the split ballot for the school and town spending plans, it was the first budget referendum following a Charter revision that moved a number of the most costly town and school capital projects to the ballot.

Previously, many of these projects costing millions of dollars were authorized at town meetings, which were often attended by fewer than one or two dozen taxpayers.

The ballots additionally include advisory questions on the two budget measures designed to help guide the Legislative Council's actions in the event either or both failed.

The referendum was also plagued by the breakdown of one of the electronic ballot readers, forcing voting officials to spend a few minutes longer than usual matching ballot counts and adding the results of both machine tallies together.

And while a group of residents, mostly town officials milled about awaiting the final counts, Democratic Registrar of Voters LeReine Frampton looked up from her calculator at one point reassuring the group that it appeared all measures had passed.

Once all the counts were checked and verified, the ballot measures and vote tallies were announced as follows:

Shall the sum of $40,399,575 be appropriated for the Board of Selectmen for the fiscal year?

Yes: 2,227  No: 1,130

*If the proposed sum of $40,399,575 for the Board of Selectmen is not approved, should the revised budget be higher?"

Yes:  778  No: 2,475

*Shall the sum of $72,995,957 be appropriated for the Board of Education for the fiscal year?

Yes: 2,150  No: 1,214

*If the proposed sum of $72,995,957 for the Board of Education is not approved, should the revised budget be higher?

Yes: 1,222  No: 2,061

The counts for the capital authorizations were:

*$1.8 million request for middle school improvements - Yes: 2,053  No: 1,292

*$3 million request for a new senior center - Yes: 1,930  No: 1,391

*$750,000 request for the final phase of high school auditorium improvements - Yes: 2,026  No: 1,295

*$850,000 for Hawley School's roof replacement - Yes: 2,158  No: 1,196

*$1 million for capital road spending - Yes: 2,841  No: 485

*$300,000 request to begin the design phase for a new police headquarters - Yes: 2,214  No: 1,109

State Representative Mitch Bolinsky (R-106), who had just returned from Hartford where he was engaged in state budget business, clapped his hands as both budget and capital project items were announced Tuesday evening.

Regarding the municipal and school budgets and requests to appropriate funds for improvements to the high school, a new senior center and police station, among other items, he said, "I'm glad we're moving forward." He noted the many "teams" working on the budget in anticipation "of anything lost at the state level."

With a grin, First Selectman Pat Llodra said, "I'm so excited and appreciative. Thank you voters for expressing confidence." She also thanked voters for investing in the capital projects "for our community, our seniors, roads, police."

Board of Education Chair Keith Alexander was "glad it all passed, it's the best thing we could do this year."

Also pleased with the voters' support, Superintendant of Schools Joseph V. Erardi, Jr believes the community "realized the collaboration and partnership," of town planning. The vote "positioned the community to go forward," he said. "It's a terrific day for children in Newtown."

"It was either going to be a slam dunk, or an 'oh my God' - and things were so quiet, it was hard to know," he added. "I'm happy it turned out well."

Newtown seniors also will receive funds for a new senior center following Tuesday's referendum. Senior Center Director Marilyn Place said, "There was no plan B," expressing her relief that the appropriation passed.

Police Chief James Viadero, a town resident, also thanked the voters for approving the design phase authorization for a new police headquarters.

"This allows us to move forward with planning to present a design package to voters sometime next year," he said. "At that point we should have a good idea of what that facility will look like, if they still want the facility, and where it's going to be located."

The chief said going into the referendum, there were no preconceived ideas about a new facility, just no doubt that one was needed.

"I know voters approved $300,000," Chief Viadero said, "but we are going to be very, very responsible with those funds, and move along at a very cautious pace."

Finance Board Chairman John Godin said the referendum outcomes reflected a lot of work behind the scenes by officials and others who tried to carefully explain all the various aspects of the budget development process to taxpayers.

"It was a balanced effort to overcome what may be coming at us from the state," he said, referring to an anticipated $3 million in reduced intra governmental revenues from Hartford next year. I think there was a careful thought process throughout that considered what might be going on in Hartford, and we addressed it accordingly. It's hard to get it right when you don't know what's coming."

Legislative Council Chair Mary Ann Jacob said a significant effort was exerted across all boards and commissions to try and help taxpayers understand a process that involved a lot of moving parts, and a lot of unanswered questions.

"The folks who advocated for their own capital projects came through," she said. "When we changed the Charter, we talked about how it would add responsibility to the Police Commission and the Commission on Aging to advocate for their projects. So they went to bat and it came out just as we hoped it would. I thank the voters for trusting us, and now we have to sit tight and wait to see what comes down from Hartford and figure out if we estimated correctly."

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