The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Voters pass budget on 3rd try
COLCHESTER — Residents approved the $15.7 million town budget on Tuesday, with nearly double the number of votes supporting the fiscal package compared those who rejected it.
The budget referendum was the town’s third attempt at passing a budget, after two votes failed over the summer.
The larger, $48.1 million budget for Colchester Public Schools was approved in June, along with a less than 1 percent increase in property taxes used to fund schools.
Because of the schools vote, officials increased the tax rate by 0.21 mills, bringing the current rate to 33.05 . A homeowner with property assessed at $500,000 would owe $16,525 during the fiscal year beginning in July — a $250 increase over the current year.
In an August meeting of the Board of Finance, Chairman Robert Tarlov said it would take roughly $350,000 in cuts from the government side of the budget to offset baked-in tax increases in the education budget.
Unwilling to cut spending by that amount, board members instead chose to move forward with more modest cuts that removed the need for additional taxes.
The result was a $15,704,962 budget that included both targeted cuts as well as across-the-board reductions.
Roughly three-quarters of the cuts came from a list proposed by First Selectwoman Mary Bylone on Aug. 10, according to documents presented at the meeting. Some of the items accepted by the Board of Finance included the removal of a planned salary increase for the first selectman, which Bylone said she would not accept; as well as the removal of funding to hire a new police officer and a part-time groundskeeper.
The board also opted to trim 0.20 percent from most town departments, rather than Bylone’s suggested $15,000 reduction in road maintenance. She had agreed to support the plan at the meeting, despite expressing reservations.
“As much as I don’t like to see across-the-board cuts like that, I do think it minimizes the impact,” Bylone has said prior.
The Board of Finance did not finalize amounts to be reduced from individual town departments as a result of general cuts, and Tarlov said Bylone could suggest adjustments as long as the total remained the same.