North Stonington approves education budget

No increase from last year as Board of Finance sets tax rate at 28 mills after referendum vote

North Stoningtion — Six months into the fiscal year, residents finally approved a 2017-18 education budget at a referendum Monday. The $12.8 million education budget, which shows no increase compared to the 201617 budget, was approved by a vote of 546-367.

Following the vote, the Board of Finance set the tax rate at 28 mills. Tax bills, reflecting the increase over the previous 27 mills, will be sent out to residents today.

The 913 ballots cast for the referendum was much higher than last month’s referendum when 578 taxpayers voted. “Right now we should be planning our next budget, so that allows us to move forward and start that process, which I’m very excited to get into,” said First Selectman Mike Urgo.

Passing the education budget at least temporarily closes the chapter on what had been a rather precarious position for the town.

Officials waited until November to propose town and education budgets due to the state’s budget issues, and the previous referendum saw the exact same budget voted on Monday rejected by just 10 votes. This left the town in the unusual position of being without an approved budget heading into December.

Following the failure at the first referendum, local officials decided to bring the same exact budget back before voters, citing, among other things, concern that poor communication and low voter turnout left resident sentiment unclear.

Also complicating matters, the option of decreasing the budget was not heavily supported by town officials. Urgo and Board of Finance Chairman Dan Spring expressed some reluctance to the idea of cutting the budget during public meetings.

At a town meeting last week, tensions also appeared to run high throughout town and residents were fiercely divided on the budget. Some residents said that their personal budgets were already tight and they could not afford to support even a zero percent increase.

They also expressed some resentment to the fact that the same exact budget they already voted on was being re-presented for a vote, and tied their frustration with the contentious school modernization to their opposition as well.

Meanwhile other residents said they supported the budget and the schools despite trying financial times, and praised the high achievement of North Stonington schools, as well as the ability of the district to consistently operate with a near zero percent budget increase. Since 2009 the education budget has only increased by more than 1 percent twice.

With the budget now approved and the tax rate set, local officials will turn their attention to developing a government budget and education budget for the 2018-19 fiscal year, which is only six months away.