Seymour voters approve school budget on second try

By Jean Falbo-Sosnovich
Register Correspondent

SEYMOUR >> Voters on the second try Thursday approved a $32.6 million Board of Education budget for the 2015-16 school year.

A second referendum was held only on the school budget at the Seymour Community Center, and voters approved the plan by a 619-509 vote.

Voters initially rejected a higher school budget by 100 votes at the April 30 referendum. The Board of Finance then slashed $100,000 from the bottom line, which apparently was enough to meet with voters’ approval.

School board Chairman Yashu Putorti, while pleased the budget passed on the second try (historically in Seymour, it often takes three or four referendums before the budget passes), was disheartened by the low voter turnout. Seymour has about 9,400 registered voters, and for Thursday’s vote, just a little more than 1,100 of them showed up at the polls.

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Seymour voters approve town budget, reject spending plan for schools

By Jean Falbo-Sosnovich
Register Correspondent

SEYMOUR >> It hasn’t happened in quite some time, but voters on Thursday approved the town budget for fiscal year 2015-16 on the very first try — but not surprisingly, shot down the Board of Education budget by only 100 votes.
In a daylong referendum held at the Seymour Community Center, voters approved the $23.2 million town side of the budget by a vote of 621-563, but rejected the $32.7 million school budget by a vote of 642-542.

Historically in Seymour, voters usually approve the town side of the budget on the second go-around. It often takes three or four referendums before voters approve a school budget.
The Board of Finance will next meet at 7 p.m. May 5 at Town Hall to discuss what needs to be done to the school budget’s bottom line in order to get voters to approve it.

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