Voters rejected both the town and school budgets during a referendum Tuesday.
The tally:
Town budget of $20.8 million
Yes: 753
No: 829 < — -
School budget of $29.8 million
Yes: 741
No: 849 < — -
About 17 percent of eligible voters voted.
The budgets will be further tweaked and sent out for another referendum May 10.
Voters interviewed Tuesday said the economy is too weak to support a tax increase — even a 1 mill increase, which had been proposed.
“I voted, no, no and no, because I’m hanging on by my fingertips,” said Paul Nettle, 45, a single dad with two children. “I’ve cut every corner possible.”
Lisa Sodaro, a 48-year-old single mom who home schools her children, also voted no.
She said she believes the school district can find ways to cut costs without hurting students.
She was particularly concerned with the salaries of school district leaders.
“I don’t know too many people who are making $50,000 more than they did 10 years ago,” she said.
School Superintendent MaryAnne Mascolo was disappointed by the results. School administrators and the Board of Education will have to figure out how to cope with less money than they need to run the schools.
“We’ll make some recommendations and it will be up to the Board of Education,” Mascolo said.
The next step is a meeting of the Board of Finance Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at Town Hall to discuss the budget.
Then the Finance Board will meet Monday at Town Hall at 7 p.m. to finalize the budget that must go to voters in May, said Robert Koskelowski, chairman of the finance board.
“The cuts will have to be substantial,” Koskelowski said after the votes were called out. He had predicted the budgets would fail.
First Selectman Paul Roy had urged voters to support the budgets.
“I understand that the economy is not great, and I understand that people are hurting. The vote was not far off so I hope if we bring it down to more responsible numbers, reduce it a little bit, it will be something people can handle,” Roy said.
He said he would work with the Finance Board to suggest reductions.
The $20.8 million town budget and $29.8 million school budget would have raised taxes by about $200 for a property assessed at $200,000.
A proposed charter revision in Seymour also failed, even though more people voted “yes” than “no.” Not enough people cast votes, Roy said.
