SEYMOUR – A day after voters rejected a $70.7 million town and school budget for fiscal year 2026 – 2027, members of the Seymour Board of Finance trimmed $456,018 from the proposed bottom line.
The board met for more than three hours Wednesday (April 22) at Seymour Town Hall and unanimously voted in favor of reducing the school side of the budget by $375,000 and the town side of the budget by $81,018.
New Numbers
The revised $70.3 million town and school budget represents an overall increase of $2.1 million, or 3.1 percent, over the current, $68.2 million budget.
A revised mill rate was set at 28.99 mills. That’s an increase of 1.27 mills, or 4.6 percent, over the current mill rate of 27.72 mills.
Potential Tax Impact
Under the revised mill rate of 28.99 mills, a single-family house on Brookfield Road assessed at $436,170 would pay $584 more per year in taxes.
A house on Colony Road assessed at $268,800 would pay $341 more per year in taxes.
A house on Bungay Road assessed at $195,790 would pay $248 more per year in taxes.
Click here to read all Seymour budget stories in the Valley Indy this year.
Drugonis live-streamed the meeting on Facebook. Click here to watch the video.
Tweaks
With the reductions, the town side of the budget is now $27.5 million. That’s an increase of $695,000, or 2.6 percent, over the current budget.
The school budget is now $42.7 million. That’s an increase of $1.4 million, or 3.4 percent, over the current budget.
The revised budget will now head to voters for a second referendum scheduled for 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. May 5 at the Seymour Community Center, 20 Pine St.
Why This Is Happening
The finance board made the changes after voters rejected both the town and school budgets at a referendum held Tuesday (April 21). Voters shot down the $27.6 million town side of the budget by a vote of 854-684. They also shot down the $43.1 million Seymour Board of Education budget by a vote of 924-614.
During Wednesday’s meeting, the board grappled over how much to reduce the school budget. The board can only reduce the school budget’s bottom line and cannot dictate which line items to reduce.
Some board members wanted to slash the school budget request by $500,000, but the board ultimately agreed to a $375,000 reduction.
Seymour Board of Education Chairwoman Kristin Bruno said the district will lay off staff to hit the new bottom line.
“The Board of Education will not be able to avoid a reduction in force based on the depth of this cut,” Bruno said.
Town Budget Proposal Changes
Seymour First Selectwoman Annmarie Drugonis presented a series of reductions to the town’s proposed spending plan.
Drugonis’ reductions include:
*$32,576 for not filling the vacant assistant assessor’s position
*$8,235 in elimination of benefits for the assistant assessor’s position, and the administrative assistant’s position
*$5,000 from culture and arts
*$5,000 from town events
*$2,804 from probate court
*$2,500 from the Pumpkin Festival
*$1,403 elimination of administrative assistant’s pay raise
The finance board found an additional $23,500 in reductions to the town budget, including $13,500 in advertising/printing costs, a $5,000 salary reduction for the emergency management director position and a $5,000 reduction connected to custodian fees for special events.
Drugonis said April 21 that she would look into closing Seymour Town Hall on Fridays and closing the transfer station on Saturdays to cut costs. Those options are no longer on the table, as Drugonis said there were other places to find savings.
Compton had said increases in health insurance costs, utilities, transportation, and special education costs, along with staff salary increases, are the driving forces behind the budget increase. She said a 4.7 percent increase was needed to maintain the status quo.
Drugonis had said the town budget was barebones, with no capital in the budget and no money for major road repairs.