More people voted in Seymour’s second budget referendum Thursday, but the results were the same: both the school and town budget proposals were rejected by voters.
The results:
Town Budget: $21,356,366
YES: 710
NO: 856
School budget: $30,698,027
YES: 644
NO: 919
The turnout was 1,554 people — or about 16.7 percent of the town’s 9,366 registered voters.
At the town’s first referendum, it was 12.7 percent.
“More people came out, and it still failed by approximately the same number,” Board of Finance Chairman Trish Danka said.
Now town officials plan to regroup 7 p.m. Monday at a meeting to talk about what else to cut from the budget proposal.
First Selectman Kurt Miller said he’ll review possible cuts over the weekend and present recommendations to the Board of Finance on Monday.
His goal: get the budget below a 1 mill increase.
“I think people want to see more cuts to the budget,” Miller said. “I have the impression they want to see an increase below 1 mill.”
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To do that, the Board of Finance will have to come up with about $480,000 in spending cuts or about $480,000 in more revenue — or a combination of some cuts and some extra revenue.
The $52 million proposal would have resulted in a tax rate of 33.42 mills.
The current rate is 27.62 mills. However, town officials have recalculated the rate to 31.95 to allow residents to make a better comparison accounting for revaluation.
After the first budget proposal was rejected on May 3, the Board of Finance cut about $500,000 from the two proposals. About $90,000 was anticipated to come from eliminating the public works director’s position.
Click here to read reaction to that plan.
Miller said potentially more layoffs could result after cutting more from the budget proposal, though he conceded that contracts in place make it difficult to lay off people.
Click here to read what Seymour residents are saying about the results on the Valley Indy Facebook page.
While on May 3 Miller expressed concerns about several new initiatives he hoped to implement (read about the proposals here), he sang a different tune Thursday.
“As of now, I’m going to stand firm,” he said.
If cuts do need to be made to his initiatives, Miller said he’ll create a “pecking order” list of which to cut first.
Miller and Danka said forgoing the new initiatives — which include hiring a human resources director — would hold the town back, and leave Seymour residents dissatisfied.
“It’s really heartbreaking that we’re not getting support to put the budget through, because the new initiatives in there are based on the changes the town is screaming for,” Danka said.
“So some of those (initiatives) might be coming out, and we’re going to end up with the same thing that we’ve always had,” she said.
NEXT STEPS
The Board of Finance will meet at 7 p.m. Monday at Seymour Town Hall to discuss potential cuts to the budget.
The public is welcome to attend and give input on where they would like to see cuts, Danka said.
A third budget vote is scheduled for Wednesday, May 30. The referendum will be held at the Seymour Community Center at 20 Pine Street from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.
