Wow.
Today was budget referendum day here in Windsor. I didn’t mention it here, in part because hardly anyone from Connecticut, much less Windsor, reads this blog, and in part because it seemed like a non-issue. The proposed budget called for a 2½% hike in the mill rate, plus an additional 4½% hike in revenues coming from grand list growth.
I voted against it on general principle — any non-obligatory increase in spending seems unwise in the current economic environment — but I expected that the last two years of holding the line on the mill rate, combined with no visible opposition would pass muster with municipal voters.
It didn’t.
Referendum failed - 1571 votes no, versus 843 votes yes.
I may have to go to the next town council meeting. It could be rather entertaining.
Oh, and on the off chance that any of the town leaders do end up reading this, I offer a word to the wise: robocalls suck. If you want to call us to advocate for the next iteration of the budget, feel free to do so, but please put a human on the line, not a machine.
1 response so far ↓
1 Overtaxed in Windsor // 14 May 2008 at 10:10 am
It’s great that you voted against it in principle. But believe me, if it passed, next year - your property tax may not go up too, too much, but the following year when the property reevaluation comes in and the one time moneys that Windsor had made this year with all the new businesses that came in, people will be walloped an average of 15% higher taxes plus get stuck with a $97 million + budget to keep up! Pencils need to be sharpened and sacrifices need to be made at the Board of Education which is probably between 70-80% of where our money goes.