Voters Approve Budget at Referendum, 1,277-591

The $74,584,980 town budget was approved Wednesday at referendum by a margin of 686 votes.    

The vote was 1,277-591. The 'yes' votes included 27 absentee ballots and the 'no' votes included 24.

The approval of the budget translates to a 2.45 percent increase in taxes for the fiscal year that will begin on July 1, 2011. At the close of the referendum, the Board of Finance set the tax rate at 25.04 mills. 

“I want to thank the Avon residents who took the time to vote in today’s referendum and particularly would like to thank them for supporting the budget by such an overwhelming margin,” said Board of Finance Chair Tom Harrison.”

The total voter turnout was 1,868 people, or about 15.6 percent of eligible voters. 

“This provides us as an entire community to move into the new year with the goals we set,” said Superintendent Gary Mala. 

Board of Education Chairwoman Peggy Roell echoed those sentiments and said, “We’re pleased at the results and we’re pleased we can move on with the schools.”

The Board of Finance voted at a budget workshop on April 6 to reduce the total budget request from $75.6 million to $74.5 million. Included in the overall reduction was an $846,933 reduction from the Board of Education's request for $47.9 million and $211,733 from the town side.

Mala presented a reduction scenario at the April 26 Board of Education meeting to cut the mandated $846,933 from the school budget.

The day of the Board of Education meeting, Patch reported that the schools were actually looking at an even greater reduction of $1,006,873, due to further budget adjustments and unanticipated tuition costs. Fortunately, there was a $254,497 decrease in health insurance rates that brought the total reduction down to $752,376. 

Mala’s reduction scenario presented at the April 26 meeting included $231,000 in offsets to operating expenses, $266,413 in non-personnel line item reductions and an additional $254,972 in personnel line item reductions, for a total of $752,385, which the school board unanimously approved. 

(Patch’s more detailed story on the overall  following the meeting.)

To reach the $211,733 reduction on the town side of the budget mandated by the Board of Finance, the Town Council choose to take $150,000 from the Capital Improvement Program and $62,000 from the town operating budget request. The council proposed lengthening the payment of a fire truck upgrade from two to three years. 

The $74.5 million annual town budget for fiscal year 2011-12 will commence on July 1, 2011.