Guilford Residents Decide Budget Referendum

(Editor's Note: We first published this story earlier this week and here it is again in case you missed it.)

GUILFORD, CT - Every vote matters as evidenced by Tuesday’s budget referendum in Guilford.

The budget was defeated by just 40 votes as 1,060 opposed the proposed spending plan for fiscal 2016-17 and 1,020 voted to approve it, the Guilford Courier reports.

The Board of Finance last month approved a $94.5 million budget for fiscal 2016-17, which would have raised taxes by 2.86 percent, town officials said.

The Board of Finance estimated this proposed budget would result in a tax increase of .81 mills or 2.86 percent, which is lower than it has been in prior years, town officials said.

The Town operating budget reflected an increase of $692,064 over the 2015-16 budget, or a 2.5 percent increase and the Board of Education Budget reflected a $1,147,274 or 1.99 percent increase over the current year.

The Debt Service portion of the budget is $7,456,214; which is an increase of $1,942,818, or a 35.24% increase from the current budget.

This increase is mainly due to payment for the new Guilford High School.

In order to mitigate this increase, the Town proposed using a portion of the almost $1 million in savings acquired by refinancing $16.8 million of existing debt as well as savings from a previous refinancing, officials said in a news release last month.

The savings will be spread over the next few years to offset the increase from the new Guilford High School bonds.

In addition the Grand List has grown .8% and has increased $24 million in net value, which can be attributed to successful efforts in economic development, including projects such as Guilford Commons and Tractor Supply, among others, officials said last month.