June 21, 2012
Budget Update
Last week, the town again rejected the proposed town and school budgets. The Board of Finance met for three nights following the vote and decided to bring forth revised budgets to a referendum on June 28th.
Both the town and school budgets were further reduced. For the town budget, in addition to the cuts made for the last referendum, there are other reductions being put forth for this budget including a reduction in the Fire Department, Assessor’s Department, and other capital items.
The Board of Finance also decided to utilize some additional ECS revenue from the state to further lower the mill rate. The proposed combined town and school budget is lower than the current year’s budget. This is the first time in at least 20 years that the combined budget has been decreased.
The total town budget is now reduced $282,266 (8.00%) versus the current year’s budget. Town operations alone is $70,757 (.69%) lower. There have been some issues raised with Colchester seeing a drop in debt service this year. However, it needs to be put in context with the fact that we also saw a corresponding reduction in revenue that partially offsets this debt reduction. This is mainly from school construction bonds which the state partially reimburses the town for.
The budget now moves to the voters for a town meeting this evening at 7:15 PM at Town hall and a referendum on June 28th from 6AM – 8PM. Voting for all districts will occur at Town Hall. All of the budget information is on the town website at www.colchesterct.gov. Please take some time to read the information for yourself and always feel free to contact me or another elected official with any questions.
Get The Facts
There continues to be false claims about the budget and your taxes by some people. Additionally, it is easy to become confused with all the numbers floating around. The facts are very simple. The combined proposed budget is decreasing and over 2/3rds of all residential real estate will see a tax decrease. Please don’t be fooled by misinformation. You have the ability to go to the town website and see exactly what will happen to your real estate taxes. You can also contact town hall with any questions.
I hope everyone will take some time to research the budget or ask questions. Elected officials respect all votes, we just want to make sure voters are making these important decisions on correct facts.
- Gregg Schuster
First Selectman
Previous Selectman Notes can be viewed at
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