SEYMOUR – The Board of Selectmen on Monday (April 18) unanimously voted to forward a proposed $62.4 million budget for fiscal year 2022 – 2023 to a town-wide referendum next week.
The budget’s fate now lies in the hands of the voters. A referendum will take place from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. April 28 at the Seymour Community Center, 20 Pine St. On the ballot will be two questions, asking voters to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to both the town and school budgets.
The proposed town side of the budget is $25,146,426 and represents an increase of about $1.3 million over the current budget.
The proposed Seymour Board of Education budget is $37.2 million, and represents an increase of $1.9 million, or 5.3 percent, over the current school budget. School officials said the 5.3 percent increase keeps the budget at status quo, with no staff hirings, no new programs or no new initiatives proposed in the budget.
School officials have said the main drivers behind the budget increase are due to contractual obligations with negotiated salary increases between 3 and 3.5 percent reached through arbitration, along with spikes in employee benefits, utilities and special education costs.
The combined town and school budget proposal of $62,374,562 is about $3.2 million, or roughly 5.4 percent, more than the 2021 – 2022 budget. If approved by voters at the referendum, the current mill rate of 34.71 mills would increase to 35.59 mills.
That translates to an increase of about $132 in taxes next year for a homeowner with a house assessed at $150,000.
The Board of Finance has opted to use $400,000 from the town’s general fund balance to prevent having to further increase the mill rate.
Some of the budget highlights include $4.5 million for the police department, which includes addition of a second deputy police chief; $1.8 million for public works; $1.5 million for waste collection; $462,000 for community services (recreation/senior center) and $435,097 for the fire department. There are also 2.5 percent raises across the board for town employees included in the budget proposal.
The 2021 – 2022 budget referendum drew a dismally low turnout, with just 4.6 percent of the town’s approximate 11,300 registered voters casting ballots.
More information about the annual budget can be found on the town’s website:
Budget Process.pdf (seymourct.org)
