Southington Approves Town, School Budgets

By Brian M Johnson, The Bristol Press

May 12, 2022

The town and school budgets were approved Monday night, with both seeing some increases, following a party-line vote.

The town council voted separately on each portion of the budget. The general government budget was approved for $58 million, a roughly 4% increase over last year. The Board of Education budget was approved for $104.4 million, which is a roughly 3.6% increase.

The budget was approved with the Republican majority in favor and Democratic town council members opposed. The Board of Finance will vote to set the mill rate at a future meeting.

Republican Town Council Chair Victoria Triano said that she felt the budget came together well this year.

“The Board of Finance worked hard on the budget,” she said. “I want to thank them along with the members of the Town Council and Board of Education who made it possible. It’s not a huge impact to voters; we’re in good shape this year but next year will be a challenge.”

Triano said, with the impact of inflation, the town needs to do everything that it can to plan ahead for next year’s budget.

Democratic Town Council member Chris Palmieri said that he wasn’t happy that the Board of Finance reduced the education budget from the Superintendent’s original proposal, which would have been a 4.12% increase. The increases, he said, were 96.37% contractual increases, leaving little room for much else.

“There were zero new employees, zero new programs and zero new services,” said Palmieri. “Coming off the pandemic, I’m concerned that we’re not making progress. Last year, ESSR (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief) funds were used to fund positions, which created a fiscal cliff since these were non-recurring funds.”

Palmieri said that he is happy, however, that this year’s budget allows for the hiring of two new police officers and new firefighters, which he supported last year.

Palmieri added that the growth to the Grand List helped prevent there from being too big of an impact on taxpayers.

Brian M. Johnson can be reached at 860-973-1806 or bjohnson@bristolpress.com.