Voters Send Budget Back to the Drawing Board

Monroe's string of passing a budget on the first try was snapped on Tuesday when voters rejected an $80.5 million budget proposal that included a 4.24% increase in the mill rate.

According to the unofficial results, there was a total of 2,218 no votes compared to 1,878 people voting yes.

"I guess it's back to the drawing board," First Selectman Steve Vavrek said after the votes were tallied. "I'm disappointed because I thought it was a good budget. I'm not blaming anyone."

Vavrek will call a joint meeting with the Board of Finance, Town Council and Board of Education before deciding how to adjust the budget proposal for a second referendum on April 23.

The Registrars of Voters released numbers showing around 4,090 of the town's 12,858 registered voters participated in the referendum for a turnout of 31.8%. That was an increase from the 24.6% last year.

Town Councilman Nick Kapoor, who is also the Democratic Town Committee Chairman, was inside the Town Clerk's Office of Monroe Town Hall when the results came in.

"The citizens of Monroe have spoken and cannot support this year's proposed budget," he said. "This budget had many good things in it — a great plan for the fire services, mental health funding, a slight increase in the education budget with savings maintained from energy efficiencies and the management of the medical insurance fund and improvements to Wolfe Park among other things."

"Now the first selectman has some decisions to make," Kapoor added. "I would urge him not to cut the education budget. We are losing teachers faster than we are losing students and we now must comply with the Common Core Standards. The slight increase in education is justified."

The budget proposal that was defeated included $52,334,919 for education (a 1.72% increase from the current budget.).