On Wednesday, May 12, Clinton voters will get to cast their vote for or against the proposed town and education budgets. Every voter is eligible to either vote in person in the Town Hall Green Room from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. or via absentee ballot.

The town budget is proposed at $21,352,747, a $1,784,045 or 9.12 percent increase over last year’s budget. The proposed education budget is at $37,147,016, a $434,742 or 1.18 percent increase from last year’s budget. The total proposed budget is now $58,499,763, a $2,217,787 or 3.94 percent increase from last year’s budget.

While town and schools spending does increase, under the proposed budget the tax rate will decrease. If the proposed budgets are approved, the mill rate would drop to 29.82 mills, a reduction of 1.43 mills (4.58 percent).

Voters vote separately on the town budget and the education budgets, meaning one could pass while the other fails.

Should one or both budgets fail at referendum, the Town Council will meet to discuss changes to the proposed budget(s), then hold an additional public hearing in the week after the referendum. The week after the additional public hearing another referendum will be held.

Anyone who is a registered voter in Clinton or a property owner in town is eligible to vote in the referendum.

Return of the Referendum

This is the first budget referendum held in Clinton since May 2019. Due to uncertainty about how to keep in-person voting safe during the COVID-19 pandemic when it arrived in 2020, Governor Ned Lamont issued an executive order giving the legislative bodies of each municipality the authority to set their own budgets. In Clinton, the Town Council is that legislative body and it approved the budgets last year.

When the governor’s executive order was announced in 2020, many Clinton residents were not pleased with the news. Some towns follow the process laid out by the executive order even under normal circumstances, but budgets in Clinton are typically a highly contested and divisive topic of discussion in town.

Only twice since 2009 has Clinton passed both the proposed town and education budget at the first referendum. However, in an encouraging sign for town officials, all speakers who attended a public hearing on the proposed budgets on April 7 spoke in favor of one or both of the current proposed budgets.

This year, the typical referendum formula has returned with one important update: The State is allowing any voter who wants one to use an absentee ballot to vote, just like in last year’s presidential election.

Town Clerk Sharon Uricchio said that applications for the absentee ballots can be obtained either on the town website clintonct.org or in person in the Town Clerk’s Office in Town Hall. Voters have until 4 p.m. on Tuesday, May 11 to apply for the ballot.

In the last in-person referendum, there were only 131 absentee ballots issued, but due to the expanded availability of the ballots for this referendum and the uneasiness some people may still have over large crowds, Uricchio said there could be a big increase this year.

“I highly recommend people get one sooner rather than later,” Uricchio said of the absentee ballots.

More information on the proposed budgets can be found on zip06.com.