Politics & Government

Focus Shifts to Town Operations After Second Budget Referendum

Despite two rounds of cuts to the board of education's request for funding, amounting to $600,000, Windsor residents Tuesday still told town officials they've failed to present a sound spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year.

With state limits on minimum funding for the district, the town council's attention will likely shift toward cutting funding of town operations, council Republican Don Jepsen said following Tuesday's vote.

"We don't really know what the minimum requirement is. The state's passed their budget... By the time we get our next crack at (making cuts) this we may get some guidance as to what our state funding numbers are. The key thing to know right now is how the numbers are going to change," Jepsen said.

While the minimum funding requirement for local education has not been determined, Jepsen said he believes the cuts that have been made have brought the council "within the vicinity" of what that figure will be.

"By state law we can't cut more than that. Well... I believe we can, but who knows what the repercussions would be. That forces us to the town side a little bit," he added.

Previous town council cuts to the proposed budget reduced the town manager's proposed spending increase by more than 1 percent.

The budget that failed Tuesday represented a 1.9-percent spending increase.

Windsor voters rejected the proposal by a vote of 1,456 to 1,291.

The town council's next regularly-scheduled meeting is on Mon., June 17.


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