Vernon Town Meeting Approves $109 Million Budget, New Tax Rate Set

VERNON, CT — Voters at Vernon's annual town meeting Tuesday night endorsed a $109.1 million budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year.

The tally was 57-8.

The Town Council met in special session after the vote and set a tax rate at 35.09 mills for real estate and personal property and 32.46 for motor vehicles, the latter specified by state law. The tax rate on real estate and personal property represents a 1.7-mill increase. Prior to Tuesday, Vernon had not had a tax rate increase in six years.

The bottom line is of $109,176,779.

Town officials said the factors driving the increase were:

• $1,898,676 in health insurance costs, including $1.7 million for Board of Education health insurance
• $911,188 in the education budget
• $499,684 in the police budget
• $242,616 in pension expenditures
• $197,758 in municipal insurance premiums
• $165,325 in assorted costs, including utilities.