MONROE, CT — Voters will decide on a $108.19 million town budget at referendum on Tuesday, May 6. It includes a 3.92 percent spending increase over the current budget.
The Board of Finance unanimously approved the final proposal at its budget workshop Thursday night.
The biggest change was putting $783,134 back into the Board of Education budget after First Selectman Terry Rooney had reduced the requested increase by $1.85 million.
Board of Finance members Steve Kirsch and Samantha Spino pushed hard to restore $972,000 of it.
Kirsch said the money is needed to meet the growing needs of the school district and argued that giving any less will put it further and further behind every year. He said he thought restoring $972,000 of the request was “a reasonable compromise.”
“Why don’t we give the voters the opportunity to vote it down?” Kirsch asked.
Spino contended that when people vote no, town officials have no way of knowing why, so some may want more education funding.
Chairwoman Rebecca O’Donnell said it is the Board of Finance’s job to manage the numbers before putting a budget out to referendum. She and Vice Chair Katherine Stauffer both expressed concerns over taxpayers as a whole, including seniors living on fixed incomes and others without children in the school system.
O’Donnell said she kept thinking of how the revaluation has shifted more of the property tax burden to residential taxpayers.
A few education supporters spoke in favor of restoring funding Thursday night, and many had attended a public hearing to make their voices heard.
O’Donnell said she has also received some emails from residents who are concerned about increased spending raising their taxes. She noted that people are often too embarrassed to speak publicly about not being able to afford higher taxes, so the pro-education voices are louder.
Spino said those without children in the schools benefit from the quality school system increasing the values of their homes.
O’Donnell and Stauffer said they support education and Kirsch and Spino said they think of all of the taxpayers too. After a lengthy discussion, board members agreed to compromise and add $783,134 to the education budget.
To help offset the $783,134 added back, the board proposed using available fund balance of $250,000 from the Special Education Reserve fund, $100,000 from the General Fund, and $18,561 from the Board of Education’s Sec 10-248A Fund. The rest of the funds would come from tax revenue.
By the numbers
The $108,190,824 town budget proposal for fiscal year 2025-26 includes $74,700,763 for education, which is a 4.53 percent increase over the current $71,464,259 spending plan.
Municipal spending would rise from $31,873,849 to $32,523,469 or by 2.04 percent. The budget also includes $966,593 in contingency and other appropriations.
The estimated mill rate is 28.67. Individual tax bills can be calculated by multiplying one’s assessed property value by the mill rate and then dividing by 1,000.
Rooney had proposed reducing the current tax rate of 38.27 mills and using $4 million from the undesignated fund balance to reduce the impact of the state-mandated revaluation on taxpayers.
Residential property assessments soared while commercial property values did not go up nearly as much. As a result, more of the property tax burden shifted to homeowners.
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