Vote 'Yes' On Tolland Budget Referendum, 2 Council Members Say

The following opinion was shared by a Patch reader.

Dear Tolland Residents,

The past few months have been filled with difficult budget conversations. Crafting a budget is one of the hardest tasks for the Town Council to undertake, it is, fundamentally, a balancing act where trade-offs must be made.

After three failed referendum votes, it’s critical that we put forth a budget that will pass before the fiscal year begins on July 1st. This latest proposal is a 3.44% spending increase (down from 4.48% in the prior referendum), which requires a 1.18% mill rate increase (down from 2.65% in the last referendum). This is a significant change from the first budget referendum, which required a 3.78% mill rate increase to fund a 4.89% spending increase.

Like the previous budgets put to referendum, the budget before you takes care to preserve our fund balance, which is critical since relying on the fund balance to fund the budget will damage the town’s credit rating, which will cost taxpayers even more money.

In conclusion, we strongly encourage you to vote yes on this budget on Tuesday, June 18th at the Tolland Library. * Real reductions were made to limit the tax burden, and the more times this budget fails, the more we risk having to make significant cuts to town and educational services, and/or see our credit rating downgraded. Finally, multiple failed referendums will also cause more disruption to our town and school staff who need to know how much money they will have to work with in the next fiscal year.

The Budget question shall be as follows:

“Shall the Town of Tolland’s proposed 2024-2025 budget of $63,665,940, reflecting a spending increase of $2,114,583 or 3.44% which requires an estimated tax rate of 37.77 mills for an increase of .44 mills or 1.18% be adopted? Yes/No.”

Sincerely,
Jacob Marie – Town Council Vice Chair
Joseph Sce – Town Councilor