ANSONIA – Ansonia residents overwhelmingly rejected the city and schools’ proposed budgets during a referendum April 25 at the Armory (5 State St.).
Turnout for the referendum was around 9.7 percent, based on the number of 11,369 registered voters in November 2024.
The ballot questions and results are as follows:
CITY BUDGET:
1. Shall the city portion of the budget, as recommended by the board of aldermen of $30,053,120 for the fiscal year 2026 be adopted?
Yes: 129
No: 975
(Advisory question 1) If you voted no on the general government budget, is the budget …
Too High: 940
Too Low: 33
SCHOOL BUDGET:
2. Shall the board of education portion of the budget, as recommended by the board of aldermen, $39,560,719 for the City of Ansonia for the fiscal year 2026 be adopted?
Yes: 317
No: 785
(Advisory question 2): If you voted no on the Board of Education budget, is the budget …
Too high: 739
Too low: 85
Democratic Registrar of Voters John Feddern receives the budget referendum vote results.
Both budgets now go back to the Board of Aldermen for revisions. A public hearing and budget meeting will be held May 5, where the Aldermen could send a revised budget to a second referendum. That referendum is scheduled for May 9.
Check the city’s website for the time and place of the next meeting.
Mayor David Cassetti said he’ll talk with the city’s finance department in the coming days about where to make adjustments.
“Now we can really axe the tax with severe cuts. We really can,” Cassetti said. “And this is what the people want.”
He said he didn’t know where those cuts will be made yet.
“Everything is on the chopping block, except anything that compromises essential safety or the welfare of our kids,” Cassetti said.
Click here for The Valley Indy’s most recent story about the rejected budget.
The budget would have included a 3.13 mill rate increase. That’s an increase of 11.8 percent compared to the current budget.
It included a 1.8 percent increase in city-side spending, as well as a 5.3 percent spending increase for the board of education.
Of the votes cast, 88.3 percent of voters said ‘no’ to the city budget, and 71.2 percent said ‘no’ to the school’s budget.
The budget requires referendum approval because of charter changes proposed by Mayor David Cassetti’s administration and approved by voters in 2015. The charter requires voter approval for any budget with an increase in‘net taxes to be collected’ of more than 3 percent.
The rejected budget included $41,289,085 in net taxes to be collected. That’s an increase of about 9 percent, compared to the $37,864,585 in the most recent budget.
This was the first budget to require referendum approval since the charter changes were made.
