Voting Booths Open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. for Budget Referendum

The voting booths opened at 6 a.m. Wednesday at the Avon Senior Center for residents to vote on the proposed 2011-12 budget.

The budget question is "shall the annual town budget in the amount of $74,584,980, as recommended by the Board of Finance, for the fiscal year commencing on July 1, 2011 be approved?"

If passed, that will mean a 2.45 percent tax increase, which would raise the tax rate from 24.44 to 25.04.

The budget includes $19,552,480 for the town operating budget, a 2.45 percent increase from the current operating budget, and $47,098,247 for the Board of Education operating budget, a 2.56 percent increase. Capital Improvement funds ($1,416,857, a 21.27 percent increase), debt services (4,808,189, a 4.03 percent increase) and sewer services ($1,709,207, a 1.17 percent increase) are also included in the $74.5 million.

The Avon Taxpayers Association has agreed to support the proposed budget that will go to referendum.

“We, the Avon Taxpayers Association, are very pleased that the Board of Finance refused to be bullied and we will support this budget,” said Florence Stahl, president of the Avon Taxpayers Association, said at the budget workshop on April 6.

The budget figure required initially required an $846,933 reduction from the Board of Education's request for $47.9 million and $211,733 from the town side of the budget.

But after reviewing the budget further, Avon Superintendent of Schools Gary Mala said that on the morning of April 26, administrators were actually looking at $1,006,873 in reductions from the Board of Education budget request. That included Mala's recommendation of $64,630 to keep certain line items from falling short and $95,243 in unanticipated tuition costs.  A drop in the town and district's health insurance rates from 7.85 percent to 2.4 percent yielding a $254,497 decrease in the expectation for district insurance spending and bringing the new reduction total to $752,376.

The board unanimously voted to adopt Mala's school board budget reduction strategy if the voters approve the proposed combined budget Wednesday. The proposal makes $254,972 in personnel line item reductions and $266,413 in non-personnel line item reductions, and off-sets operating expenses by $231,000.

The Town Council decided to take $150,000 of its mandated budget adjustment out of the Capital Improvement Program budget and $62,000 out of the town operating budget request. Instead of paying for the requested fire truck upgrade over two years in the capital improvement budget, the council is now proposing doing so over three years.

Many school advocates are unhappy with the budget proposal. Debbie Thurston and her family moved to Avon in 2007 and she supported being able to vote on the requested $75.6 million budget.

"I don't think it would have hurt to give it a try. Whether you agree with it or not, you still would have the opportunity to vote what you thought," Thurston said on April 6. "One of the main reasons I moved here was because of the schools. I'm surprised at what I found when I got here."

However, Board of Finance Chairman Thomas Harrison previously said that if a budget is voted down, it is usually reduced further.

The voting booths will be open until 8 p.m. Moderator Mary Harrop will announce the results just after 8 p.m., once the machines have counted the votes and the absentee ballots are incorporated into that total.