Ledyard residents to vote Tuesday on proposed budget
Ledyard — Residents will vote for the first time Tuesday on the proposed budget for 2018-19.
The polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. at various polling places in Ledyard and Gales Ferry.
This is the first time the $57.2 million budget is being brought before voters. It represents a 3.8 percent increase over last year's budget, and comprises a $25.4 million general government budget and a $31.8 million education budget. Those latter numbers represent a 6.3 percent and 1.78 percent increase, respectively, over last year.
The proposed budget also would provide more than $1.9 million for capital improvements, which is funded through a combination of money allocated in the general government budget and state and federal grants. Of that, $724,100 would come from the general government budget.
The proposed budget also calls for more than $4 million to be spent on the town's debt obligations, which consist primarily of the town's police station and two school building projects, some of which came onto the ledger this year. In the current fiscal year, the town spent just under $3 million in debt service payments.
If approved, the budget is expected to require a 1.75-mill tax rate hike, increasing the mill rate to 34.29. However, that increase still is lower than the 2.7-mill hike residents originally were facing.
The drop was driven not by cutting additional services but by a change in the town's health insurance plan across all its bargaining units.
However, if the budget fails at the referendum Tuesday, a new budget will be presented to voters at a second referendum two weeks later.
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