Somers Budget Vote Results Are In

SOMERS, CT — Somers voters approved the town budget Tuesday, ending a months-long referendum process after four failed votes.

The budget passed by 199 votes, according to results shared by David McCaffrey, the town’s director of elections and registrar of voters.

The unofficial vote total was 807 in favor and 608 opposed, according to the results. The results were for Budget Referendum #5, held July 14.

The approval came after repeated rejections of the fiscal year 2027 spending plan. The budget failed May 19 by 26 votes, with 392 residents voting in favor and 418 opposed. A later proposal failed June 16 by 123 votes, with 709 residents voting in favor and 832 opposed. The June 30 proposal failed by 151 votes, with 625 residents voting in favor and 776 opposed.

The town’s budget process included several rounds of reductions before Tuesday’s approval.

In a July 9 message to residents, Chief Financial Officer Brian Wissinger said the town and Board of Education had already proposed $936,084 in cuts since the first referendum failed May 19. Wissinger said that before the budget reached the Board of Finance for its first review, the town and school board had already made more than $800,000 in cuts.

The final push before the fifth referendum included another $350,000 in town-side reductions, according to the message from Wissinger, First Selectman Tim Keeney and Board of Education Chair Michael Briggs.

The proposed cuts included dismissing 1.5 full-time equivalent positions at the library and closing the library on Saturdays; reducing one full-time public works position to part-time and ending health benefits for that position; dismissing one full-time Recreation and Leisure Services employee; shifting remaining recreation costs to the recreation fund; shifting a fire department employee cost from the general fund to the ambulance fund; and adjusting vehicle fuel, veterans outreach, fire department building maintenance and fire department gasoline allowance lines to match prior-year spending averages.

Wissinger said the proposal would reduce the town government budget by a total of $697,731 and the overall budget by $1,286,084.

“And even after all of that, all of the impacts to services in Town, after $1.2 million in cuts, we will still require a 0.70 mill increase to balance the budget,” Wissinger wrote.

The town said the cuts would not take effect until 30 days after a budget is approved. Until then, town operations were to continue under last year’s line-item spending.

Prior proposed cuts included dismissing a part-time transfer station employee, dismissing a full-time human services employee, reducing days of operation at the transfer station and senior center, reducing the full-time senior center coordinator to part-time, reducing two full-time transfer station maintainers to part-time, dismissing the deputy emergency management director, reducing library materials and eliminating cost-of-living salary increases for non-union town employees.

Wissinger said town government had limited room left for reductions because 62 percent of the town budget is salary and benefits, while another 28 percent is fixed costs such as electricity, internet, waste hauling, legal services, audits and state police. That left about 10 percent, or roughly $900,000, as discretionary spending, he said.

Keeney said in the July 9 message that last year’s mill rate increase was supported by referendum and that the Board of Finance used $1 million from the town’s fund balance to offset an additional 1 mill increase. This year, Keeney said, the fund balance could not support additional withdrawals.

“Since the recommended Town Budget request has been reduced below last year’s request, the problem is one of less revenue available to the Town verses Town expenditures,” Keeney wrote.

Briggs said additional town budget reductions could also affect schools and students, even if the cuts were not directly made to the Board of Education budget.

Library closures could affect student access to study materials, a short-staffed public works department could affect road clearing before school, and Parks and Recreation reductions could affect youth sports programs, Briggs said.

“Engaged parents make for a stronger community and each parent's voice is important in determining the direction of the town for years to come,” Briggs wrote.

Further details on implementation of the approved budget were not immediately available Tuesday night.

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