Somers Budget Set for Referendum

If you got stuck in traffic on your way to the Somers annual town meeting, you probably missed the meeting. In one of the shortest town meetings ever - five minutes - the budget proposed by the Board of Finance was moved to referendum.

The referendum has been set for May 24 from 6 a.m. until 8 p.m. at the town hall.

The proposed budget totals $28,254,522, which is down slightly from the current budget of $28,514,484 and the mil rate is 22.12.

The median assessed value of a house in Somers is $197,600 (fair market value of $282,286). At the 22.12 rate, this will mean $4,371 in taxes which is an increase of $198 over the 21.12 rate of $4,173.

On a home assessed at $200,000 – fair market value of $285,714 – the taxes raised from $4,224 to $4,424.

At one point, the board took $75,000 from both the town and the school budgets and proposed that a significant amount of money be taken out of the reserves. At that time, the mil rate was proposed to only increase by .5 mil, but the .

This new mil rate - 1 mil - allowed the money to be restored to the town and school budgets, and also to have less taken out of the reserve fund. With the cut budget, $505,581 was to be taken from the reserve funds. Now, $247,034 will be used.

Lisa Pellegrini said that she prepared for everything and had prepared for all the questions that people may ask. She didn’t have to answer any questions as there was no discussion.

“Usually when you do that, and you over-prepare, there’s nothing, nobody has a question,” she said. “That was one of the shortest town meetings, especially for a budget.”

There were only a few people who objected so the motion carried easily.

“I think it’s a good budget,” Pellegrini said. “It looks strong.”

Pellegrini said that she has tried to get the word out about the budget and keep the residents informed. The information has been on the town web site and Pellegrini also went to the senior center a couple times.

“I went to the senior center because it was a little bit of a change – the proposed mil rate did go to the 1 mil,” she said. “We weren’t able to send out a flyer to every household (again). Traditionally they’re the ones that are more concerned with the mil rate.”

Pellegrini said the feedback has been interesting because she thought that she was going to get more of a negative pushback from everybody but that they were just thankful that they were being kept in the loop.

“I’ve heard it all – I’ve heard the gamut from, ‘We support this budget to absolutely not, we don’t support this budget,’” she said. “But honestly within the last week, it’s been very quiet. I just hope everyone comes out and votes on the 24th.”

Pellegrini also said that from her experience in the last year and a half, if something really bothers people, they just keep at it. The calm is perhaps a sign that everyone is prepared for the budget referendum. She added that she has answered many questions for people about the budget and that having to draw less from the fund balance also may have alleviated some of people’s fears.

“Maybe we’ve answered their questions and they’re okay and they’ve thought about it and they have made their mind up and are going to exercise their right to vote,” Pellegrini said. “Maybe their concerns are alleviated. I think this year compared to last year, there’s more people interested in the budget. I’ve had many more questions. Maybe it’s just a sign of the economic times, but there is definitely more interest in the budget this year than there was last year.”

If the referendum doesn’t pass on May 24, Pellegrini said that it will be up to the Board of Finance to decide where the cuts will come from.

“I don’t know if they’ll go back to the $75,000 reduction in each one,” she said. “What I would think is that they would probably lower the proposed mil rate but it’s really hard to say. The focus now is just trying to get the vote out and just have the one referendum.”