East Granby Voters Will Head to the Polls Again Wednesday for Budget Referendum

With a 35 percent turnout on May 7, East Granby voters were almost evenly divided on whether the town budget was a fair one or not. But the budget lost by 4 votes — 622 to 618 — which set the stage for Wednesday's referendum.

The original proposed budget of $20,093,553 has been pared down by cutting $50,000 from the schools side of the budget. The town budget — an increase of 3 percent — was left untouched.

Most of the residents who spoke at a town budget meeting last week were fairly vocal about their displeasure that only $50,000 was cut from the schools budget, even as Superintendent Christine Mahoney said most of the school district's costs were fixed by union contracts and state mandates.

The new budget call for an overall increase of 3.3 percent in taxes, which several residents said was just too much.

John Joseph "Joe" Foy received applause when he said the small town of just over 5,000 residents couldn't afford to maintain its own "first-class" high school anymore. He suggested trimming administrators or providing tuition so that East Granby students could go to other high schools.

"Every year we get a budget that’s quite a bit higher than inflation, and every year, we come back, trimming at the bottom," Foy said. "We’re in a box here. … With all the things the state is throwing at us, we can’t afford to have a first-class high school."

Other speakers defended the school budget and praised the town its efforts to keep costs down.

Will you vote for or against the new budget?