This article was originally published April 10, 2025.
ANSONIA — The Ansonia Board of Apportionment and Taxation reviewed and passed along the proposed budget to the Ansonia Board of Aldermen on April 7.
On April 8, the proposed budget was posted to the City of Ansonia website. It is embedded below.
A public hearing on the budget is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. April 21. The meeting will be virtual, according to a post on the City of Ansonia website. Check the city website for Zoom-related credentials.
The Ansonia Board of Aldermen could vote to adopt the budget embedded below immediately after the April 21 public hearing.
If the Aldermen adopt the budget in its current state, the budget will be put to referendum. The referendum is scheduled for April 25 at the Ansonia Armory.
The story continues after the embedded document.
The proposed budget carries a mill rate increase of 3.13 mills, an 11.8 percent increase in the mill rate.
Click here to download the document.
According to the Ansonia Charter, “a public referendum on the budget must be held if the budget approved by the board of aldermen represents an increase of three percent (3%) or more in net taxes to be collected from the previous year’s budget.”
The budget document above contains an increase of 9 percent in net taxes to be collected compared to the current budget. Hence, the scheduled referendum. Theoretically, if the Aldermen convene the April 21 meeting and are able to bring the percent increase under 3 percent — and then vote to approve that revised budget — there would be no need for a referendum. However, city officials said the chances of that happening are remote.
The following text is copied from the Ansonia Charter. It describes what triggers a referendum, and how the referendum should be carried out. The last hyperlink indicates this section was added in 2015, after an August 2014 voter-approved charter change that altered the budget process in the city:
“Not later than April 30, the board of aldermen shall adopt the budget for the ensuing fiscal year and fix the tax rate to be levied on property in the city in the ensuing year.
(d) Referendum. A public referendum on the budget must be held if the budget approved by the board of aldermen represents an increase of three percent (3%) or more in net taxes to be collected from the previous year’s budget. The referendum vote shall be by machine ballot. The referendum shall be held not more than 5 days after approval by the board of aldermen. The referendum questions shall be presented on the ballot as follows.
(1) Shall the city portion of the budget, as recommended by the board of aldermen of (dollar amount) for the fiscal year (specify year) be adopted?
(2) Shall the board of education portion of the budget, as recommended by the board of aldermen, (of dollar amount) for the City of Ansonia for the fiscal year (specify year) be adopted?
The voters shall be given the option to vote either “Yes” or “No” and additionally the option to vote “too high” or “too low” on each of the budgets.
If both budgets are rejected, both budgets shall be resubmitted to the ballot after revisions by the board of aldermen. In case of further rejections, the aforesaid process, under this section, shall be repeated until said budgets are accepted, or until the increase in net taxes to be collected is less than three percent from the previous year’s budget.
If only one (1) of the aforesaid portions of the budget passes, that budget shall be deemed to be approved. The budget question that is rejected shall be resubmitted to the ballot after revision by the board of aldermen, and resubmitted again after further rejection and further revision by the board of aldermen until said budget is accepted or until the increase in “net taxes to be collected” is less than three percent (3%) from the previous year’s budget.
If the referendum vote rejects the budget, or either part thereof, the rejected portion shall be reconsidered by the board of aldermen within five-calendar-day. In case of further rejection this process shall be continued using a five (5) calendar day period of reconsideration by the board of aldermen until the budget is adopted.
(e) Non-adoption of budget. If the budget is not adopted by June 20 the city shall send out real estate tax bills based on the same taxation figures and adjusted mill rate of the prior fiscal year, which would include adjustments for the new revenues, debt service, and legal obligations for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1. After the complete budget is passed the balance of the real estate plus personal property and motor vehicle tax bills shall be sent out based on any change brought about by referendum vote.