SEYMOUR — Voters approved a $59.2 million budget for fiscal year 2021 – 2022 Tuesday.
Voters approved the $23.8 million town side of the budget by a vote of 359 – 168, and also gave the thumbs up to the $35.4 million Board of Education budget by a vote of 302 – 224.
While the overall budget represents an increase of about $1.1 million, or about 1.8 percent, more than the current budget, the mill rate decreased from 36 to 34.71 mills.
About 4.6 percent of the town’s 11,303 registered voters cast ballots.
First Selectwoman Annmarie Drugonis was disheartened with the nominal turnout.
Drugonis believes holding the referendum on a Tuesday rather than historically on a Thursday could’ve had something to do with the low turnout.
The referendum date was changed from May 6 to May 4 to accommodate a COVID-19 vaccine clinic at the Community Center. She also believes despite numerous media reports and social media posts about the budget and the vote, the town may have been lax in posting actual signage around town, reminding people to vote.
“We’ll start doing more (advertising) next year to let people know,” Drugonis said. “I’d like to think this was a very fair budget for both the town and the schools. There was not a lot of line item increases, and we had a lot of unfunded state mandates in the police department budget. But, this budget does move the town forward.”
Board of Finance Chairman Bill Sawicki was equally pleased with the budget’s passage.
“It’s a credit to the voters; they approved this budget despite the economy, and its moves the town forward,” Sawicki said. “A lot of hours went into this budget, and I think a 1.8 percent increase overall is pretty good.”
Board of Finance member Richard Demko was grateful to see money budgeted to hire an Economic Development Director, even though it’s only for a part-time position ($45,000), with the hopes of making it full-time at some point.
“That to me was the highlight of this budget, because we really have to start promoting the town,” Demko said.
