Berlin Budget Referendum Defeated: 817 "No", 720 "Yes" Votes

The Berlin budget referendum was defeated today by a slim margin of 97 votes:  817 "no" votes to 720 "yes" votes.

Last year the budget referendum was defeated by a wider margin of 457 votes:  815 "no" votes to 358 "yes" votes.

What could account for the difference in the margin of rejection of the referendum this year?  364 more people voted this year, with 362 more individuals voting "yes" to the budget referendum, but only 2 more individuals voting "no."  Could this be due to the fact that the mill rate's budgeted increase this year is only .32 mills while last year it was 3.76 mills?

Or could the significant increase in voters approving the budget this year be a result of municipal employees--virtually all scheduled to receive raises in this budget--getting out the vote in record numbers this year? 

When one considers that the $2 million budget increase this year is largely attributable to raises being awarded to municipal employees, and that there are over 800 municipal employees, with the majority of them living in town, such may have been the case.  One only needs to ask, who stands to benefit from this $2 million budget increase?  Is it not the 800 plus municipal employees who are scheduled to receive raises this year?

But why even bother having a budget referendum.  Even though the referendum was defeated again, as it has been in years past, will the Town Council ever respect the democratic process, listen to the majority of residents who voted, and cut the Town budget in truth? Does anyone actually think that the Town Council will chop off another $700,000 from the Town budget of nearly $79 million--representing a fraction of a percent--so as to avoid an increase in taxes this year? 

That has about as much of a chance as a snowball in hell.