Newtown Budget Passes on First Referendum

"One and done."

Those were the words of a handful of Newtown officials who gathered Tuesday night to listen as vote results were read aloud after polls closed for the budget referendum.

Both the town and education budgets passed by wide margins, and officials breathed a collective sigh of relief, knowing that they would not have to go back to the drawing board to revise the spending proposals — as has been the case the past several years, punctuated in 2012 when it took five referendums before voters passed the budget.

The Results

While the budgets passed by wide margins, the turnout represented a slim number of the more than 17,000 registered voters in Newtown. Here are the results (not including absentee ballots):

Question 1 (the town budget)

• Yes: 2,529
• No: 729

Question 2 (town budget advisory question)

• Yes: 540
• No: 2,552

Question 3 (the education budget)

• Yes: 2,385
• No: 853

Question 4 (education budget advisory question)

• Yes: 972
• No: 2,124

The Budget

As approved Tuesday by voters, the 2014-15 budget of $111,066,204 represents a "zero increase" over the current budget; the Mill Rate would actually go down by an estimated 0.02% to 33.31.

The town's portion of the budget is $39,720,900, while the education side is $71,345,304.

A complete breakdown of the budget can be found here.