Voting ended at 8 p.m. on April 24, 2024, and a group gathered at the Town Hall, waiting for the Town Meeting to reconvene. Selectmen Bill Morrison and Rick Hartenstein were there, along with Beth DaDalt, Executive Assistant to First Selectman (who, it’s no secret, worked as hard on the budget as the First Selectman did). Town Clerk Karen Troiano was there to receive and certify the results, while the Board of Finance waited for the results and to take necessary action based on the vote. Superintendent of Schools, Steven A. Moccio, and Board of Education Chair Sara Introvigne-Kelley, were also on hand. I arrived around 8:15 p.m. and the results were already in – the budget had passed 599-549. Morrison later called it a “collaborative effort.”
It was a very close vote with a very low turnout. A total of 1,148 votes were cast. According to the town clerk's office, 7,651 registered voters are in Stafford, and six property owners also voted in the referendum.
They had to wait until 8:30 to reconvene the meeting, and while we waited some facts started flying around the room. The last time the budget passed on the first try, when there was also over a 1 mill increase on the ballot, was for the 2009-2010 fiscal year.
Once the meeting started and the results were officially in, Morrison said he wanted to “keep the momentum going.”
Morrison told me later that he is already “looking forward to beginning the new budget process and getting some of the goals that we outlined started.” That, of course, includes much-needed paving projects. The new fiscal year starts July 1, 2024, but Morrison says they can start putting designs together and prioritizing the projects now that they know the dollar value they have to work with.
The Town Meeting quickly adjourned and then the Board of Finance got down to work officially voting to adopt the budget of $47,365,444.40. This requires a 1.83 mill increase, for a total of 38.59 mills. They also officially voted on the service district budget of $448,417 and set the same mill rate of 2.78, which was set at the April 1, 2024, Service District meeting.
According to the minutes from that meeting, recommended expenditures increased by $40,330 for a total of $500,780. Much of that increase is due to increased rates and volume of trash and recycling. The Commission decided to earmark $20,000 for Capital Improvements within the Service District. Meanwhile, with an increase to the Grand List, collectible district taxes increased by $9,917. Due to the Motor Vehicle Tax Cap HB5506 passed in 2022, the loss of motor vehicle tax revenue to the Service District for FY 24/25 is $67,476.41. With all of this in mind, the Commission decided to use funds from the Service District savings to balance the budget, resulting in a stable service district mill rate.