After third referendum voted down, Town Council sets town budget

AVON, July 10, 2024 — After voters in Avon rejected the proposed town budget at the townside referendum for a third time on Monday, July 8, the Avon Town Council voted to set the town budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year at $115.4 million, which equates to a mill rate of 29.66 and a net tax increase of 0.99 percent.

The final vote was 4-1.

Click on the following links to access a copy of the Town Council meeting recording, the presentation, as well as final budget adjustments.  This information can also be found on the “Annual Budget” page on the town’s website.

According to the Town Charter, which was revised in 2002, the Town Council is responsible for setting a town budget after three failed budget referendums.

The third referendum failed by a margin of 1,133 to 621 with 13.3 percent of town voters participating in the referendum. It was the closest of the three budget votes this year with 66.6 percent voting no and 35.4 percent voting yes.

It was the first time since 2008 that three budget referendums failed. In 2008, the Town Council adopted a final budget that was $177,000 higher than the budget in the third referendum.

On June 24, Avon’s Board of Finance voted to send a proposed town budget of $115.4 million town voters. The Board of Finance voted 4-2 to move $932,204 from town’s unallocated fund into the budget to reduce the tax increase to 0.00 percent.

The budget crafted by the Town Council, Board of Finance and Board of Education at the budget workshop on June 18 called for a tax increase of 0.99 percent.

The budget workshop cut $614,408 from the second referendum of $116.087 million with cuts from the Board of Education, the Cider Brook road reconstruction project and town operating expenditures.

A decision at the budget workshop was to move $1.25 million from the unassigned fund balance into the budget to help lower the tax rate.

The second referendum on June 7 failed on a vote of 1,745 to 686 or 71 percent to 39 percent opposing the budget. 

The first budget referendum on May 15 failed by an even larger margin of 1,378 to 299 votes or a margin of 82.1 percent to 17.8 percent. It was the largest margin to defeat a town budget since at least 1999, according to town records.

2024-25 fiscal year budget documents

2024 budget referendum votes