Voters in Seymour Thursday approved a 2015 – 2016 spending plan for the public school system.
The vote was:
Yes — 619
No — 509
The tally does not count absentee ballots
Thursday was the second time the school budget was put to voters. The first budget was rejected by 100 votes on April 30.
The town’s board of finance then shaved $100,000 from the school district’s funding request.
The budget up for public vote Thursday totaled $32,580,447.
The budget’s approval means a single-family residential property assessed at $140,000 will see a tax bill increase of $77. A property assessed at $200,000 will see a tax bill increase of $110.
School board members interviewed immediately after the results came in were relieved.
Chairman Yashu Putorti said voter turnout is always low in Seymour. It’s a systemic problem that should probably be addressed by changing the way budgets are approved, Putorti said.
He suggested establishing a system where a local board gets final say over school spending, a practice already in place in Derby, Ansonia and Shelton, where annual town and school budgets are not put to referendum.
“Well, I’m very happy that it passed, but I still don’t like this process,” he said. “I think it has to change. It’s a waste of money. We spend $3,000 to do this (hold a referendum) and 12 percent of the people come out to vote. It’s just not worth the cost.”
Kristen Harmeling, another school board member, said the district lost $100,000 in an already tight budget because a small number of people rejected the first budget.
“I believe in my heart the vote tonight would have been the same if the board of finance had only cut $20,000,” she said. “We have now lost money out of a budget that already had nothing in it at all.”
