Voters Destroy Avon's Town/School Budgets

AVON, CT — The Town of Avon's budget referendum Wednesday was a simple, single-question slate that voters returned with a simple, single-word answer.

"No."

Voters resoundingly shot down a $116.09 million town/school budget that would have upped taxes by an average of more than 3 percent.

It wasn't even close — 299 "yes" votes to 1,378 "no" votes.

According to the Avon Town Clerk's office Thursday morning, the voter turnout exceeded the 9 percent, charter-mandated threshold for a vote to be valid on the budget. It was 12.4 percent.

Had less than 9 percent voted, the budget would have automatically passed regardless of the vote count.

It appears the budget's tax impact on voters may have played a role.

How those budgets would have impacted individual taxpayers depended on the new, post-revaluation assessments.

The 2024 tax rate was proposed to be 30.34, which is less than the current 35.39 mill rate.

But because of the recently completed revaluation, it doesn't mean taxes would have decreased even though the proposed mill rate would have been much smaller than a year ago.

The Town of Avon had set up a web page that allowed taxpayers to calculate their tax bill based on the proposed 2024-25 budget going to voters.

According to the latest budget figures, the total combined town/school budget was $116.09 million, a 5.44 percent increase in spending or nearly $6 million larger.

That spending plan included a $31.06 million town operating budget (4.25 percent larger) and a $72.28 million education budget (4.9 percent larger).

For more information on all of Avon's 2024-24 town/school budget proposals, click on this link.

To calculate how the 2024-25 budgets would have impacted your taxes in Avon, click on this link.