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02/10/2022 08:20 AMThe Town of Clinton, again partnering with students from The Morgan School, has launched a budget survey on the town website to help inform the upcoming proposed budget. The anonymous survey gauges residents’ attitudes towards spending preferences, service quality, and taxes. The survey runs until Friday, Feb. 11.
In order to better assess what town services citizens value most, the town partnered with a Morgan math class taught by John Madura to conduct a survey to assess how people feel about certain services provided by the town. The surveys launched Jan. 28 and are available to residents at clintonct.org.
Kilduff has said that in other towns where he has worked, surveys had been used as part of the budget process and he found them useful. That is being continued in Clinton.
The survey, which is anonymous, asks respondents a variety of questions related to how people feel about the importance and quality of the different departments in town. Respondents were also asked questions that monitored how they felt about various strategies regarding adjusting the tax rate to pay for services and how that would affect their families.
“Your survey reply will be kept anonymous and only summary information will be provided to the Town Council in a formal report,” the survey states at the start.
“The survey is essentially the same as last year. The only change was to seek feedback on value of services from the larger departments in the budget,” said Kilduff.
At press time, the Town Council is preparing three budget workshops where each department budget will be reviewed line by line. After that, the council will hold a special meeting on Wednesday, March 2 to set a proposed budget. It’s likely the budget survey results will help inform the decisions made on March 2.
When the town did the budget surveys last year, there were more than 150 responses. Town officials as well as those in the school system were pleased with the results. The survey helped the council make decisions on the budget while those in the school system were happy to show students real-world applications for something they were learning in class.
Kilduff explained how the council could use the surveys once the results are in.
“It is always informative to get feedback on the services that are valued by the public, their spending priorities, and the impact of a change in the tax rate to individual financial situations. Every bit of information helps inform the process and we are providing a new way for the public to interact during the budget process beyond traditional public hearing,” said Kilduff.