2012 Town Budget Approved

Wiltonians passed next year's $112,134,479 town budget yesterday, May 8 at Wilton High School.

The town hall’s website states that 15.2% of registered voters cast a vote, with 931 people approving the budget, 711 Wiltonians rejecting the bill as too high, and 35 residents who rejected the bill as too low. Wilton has 11,014 voters, but 1,677 of them ultimately decided the budget's fate.

This year's budget is a 3.37 percent increase over last year, and will increase the mill rate to 20.85. This will, on average, tack on an additional $460 for Wilton homeowners, according to the Assessor's Office at Wilton Town Hall. (A previous edition of this article erraneously  reported it was a $414 increase).

A large portion of the 2012 request came from the Board of Education’s (BOE) asking for $72,777,610, or an increase of 3.56 percent from 2011’s BOE budget. This will increase per-pupil . In 2009-2010, expenditure per student was $15,692.

The Board of Selectmen received an augmentation of $1,300,979 over fiscal year 2011’s allotment, landing the selectmen's budget at $29,825,380. See the full pdf here.

The selectmen posted a document on their website stating that employee compensation and benefits make up 67 percent of the budget, while salaries require 42 percent of the budget. The library, Trackside, Fairfield County Nursing and Hospice, and Ambler Farm use 12 percent of the budget, and the rest of the money is used for other various expenses, according to the selectmen’ document.

Passing the budget was in line with recent tradition: Wilton citizens have not rejected a proposed town budget for at least 10 years.