Seymour First Selectman Kurt Miller had been under the impression that voters had elected him last November to bring change and new initiatives to the town.
On Thursday, after those same voters — or 12.7 percent of them, anyway — rejected proposed 2012 – 2013 budgets for both town operations and the school system, a visibly deflated Miller stood in a corner of the community center gym where the results were announced and told reporters he’s not sure what his next step will be.
“It’s going to hold the town back for another year,” Miller said. “I’m a little puzzled as to where we go from here.”
The referendum ballot was split into two questions, asking voters whether they approved the $21,592,896 town government budget on the first question, and the $30,994,803 school budget on the second.
The town budget failed by a vote of 682 – 506. The school budget failed by a tally of 732 – 456.
Turnout was 1,191 out of 9,340 total registered voters. Three residents filed blank ballots.
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“The turnout was extremely disappointing,” Miller said. “One would have hoped that more residents would have taken the time to come out.”
The town’s Board of Finance will meet Monday at 7 p.m. to discuss how to cut the budget to make it more acceptable to voters.
A May 17 referendum has already been scheduled, Miller said.
The First Selectman said he thinks new initiatives like improvements to town roads and technology, in addition to a proposed reorganization at Town Hall, may have to be put on hold as a result of Thursday’s vote.
And that’s not all.
“I think we might have to look at layoffs as well, to be quite honest,” he said.
Miller said he thinks the finance board will have to make some “sizable” cuts, but wouldn’t estimate how big they’d be.
He added that the turnout leaves him guessing as to whether the vote reflected the beliefs of everyone in town.
“Is it just that nobody came out, or is this the true feeling of the residents?” Miller wondered.
Trish Danka, the chairman of the finance board, wouldn’t say how much she thinks will have to come out of the budgets either, but managed to see a silver lining in Thursday’s budget defeats.
She said she was “encouraged” to see the budgets didn’t fail by a “pummeling amount.”
Still, she said she was disappointed, especially for the Board of Education, though she empathized with taxpayers who voted no to budgets that would have increased total spending 4.12 percent year over year.
She said the finance board would work Monday to craft new budgets that would be “palatable” to voters.
“We’re just going to have to discuss what our options are,” Danka said.
