Residents approved sending several items to a machine vote, including the town and school budgets, at the annual Town Meeting Monday night. The referendum will be held May 6 from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. at Samuel Staples Elementary School.
The $52.3 million proposed town and Easton and Region 9 boards of education budget is 2.65% higher than the current budget, with the increase going toward education costs.
In addition to the budgets, residents also will vote on whether to elect members of the Planning and Zoning Commission, who are currently appointed, and whether to label Town Hall as a local historic property.
Board of Finance Chairman Art Laske outlined the proposed 2025-26 town budget, which represents a decrease from the current budget of $599,814, or 3.2%.
“Some of that is because of debt service, and some of that is because of breaks we got on some expenses,” said Laske. “But it’s also a credit to the people who work for the town who do a lot of the heavy lifting and looking to make sure the budgets they submit to us are in fact what they need and tailored to what the town needs.
“That’s why the number that we have has parentheses around it,” he said, which indicates a decrease.
But that’s not the case for the Easton snd Region 9 boards of education budgets, both of which are increasing. The Easton proposed school budget is $1,311,980, or 6.2%, higher than this school year’s budget, while the proposed Region 9 budget includes an increase of $610,436, or 4.55%.
A decrease of $842,954 in debt service is driving the town’s budget decrease, Laske said. “We are lucky in that we have had a number of obligations that have been paid off,” he said.
Debt payments have dropped from $3 million in 2021 to $1 million this year, he said, and so far this year the town has not taken on any additional debt.
“We have not had anything this year that we have had to bond for, which is good, but In the future we may have to,” he said, “but for now, debt service payments are going in the right direction.”
In addition, the town’s pension account is fully funded, he said, with its financial advisers saying because of that, contributions do not have to be increased.
“That is always a very positive thing,” Laske said.
In addition, the Police Department’s budget came in $47,739 less than this year’s budget, and the technology budget decreased by $32,000.
Budget lines that increased include the town’s contingency budget, fringe benefits, insurance, the Assessor’s Office, which will be conducting revaluations next year, and Public Works.
Easton Board of Education Chairman Randy Hicks said that budget has four main drivers: contractual salary increases for teachers and staff; investments in curriculum; decreases in federal and state grant money, and special education costs.
“We have a larger population of students that require special education services,” Hicks said. “Driving that increase is a combination of their needs and the population of our students.”
Superintendent Dr. Jason McKinnon said one important focus of improvement is through the curriculum.
“Curriculum is one of the most important ways to improve teaching and learning,” he said, “and we feel that this investment at this time is a really strategic investment.”
But the largest part of the increase — $670,000 — is going toward special education, Hicks said. And part of that is because of a reduction in reimbursements and grants, he said.
The Region 9 budget faces similar challenges, McKinnon said, especially with special education costs and reduced reimbursements and grants.
The proposed $26,489,155 Region 9 budget is $1,082,114, or 4.26% higher than this year. Based on enrollment, Easton is responsible for 52.9%, or $14,030,435, of that total.
While Easton students are currently the majority, “the enrollment is likely to swing back to Redding, meaning that greater than 50% of the students will be from Reading in approximately three years,” McKinnon said.
Overall enrollment is expected to increase, he said, from 688 students next year to an estimate of 870 students by 2033.
Residents also will decide if they want to change how Planning and Zoning members are determined.
“We have had discussions over a number of years about changing its status from an appointed board to an elected board,” said First Selectman David Bindelglass. “Those discussions have become more prevalent in the last several months, so the Board of Selectmen undertook the task of presenting to the town a possible modification to the existing ordinance.”
Currently the five appointed members of the commission serve staggered six-year terms. The proposed ordinance changes that to elected members who also would serve six-year terms.
Since appointed members can’t be removed, the elected members would be phased in, Bindelglass said. One person would be elected in November, he said, then two more in 2027 and the final two in 2029, years when there are municipal elections.
Currently there are two Republicans, two Democrats and one Unaffiliated resident on the commission, Bindelglass said, but with an elected board, that political make up could change.
Resident Beverlee Dacey said she was disappointed that the selectmen didn’t consider breaking up the commission into two separate boards.
“I think we are in a chicken and egg situation because we have a little too much power in the hands of five people who don’t listen and are tone deaf to what we all are saying about what we want for Easton,” she said.
Residents have come out to P&Z meetings in opposition to proposals that the commission ultimately passed, she said, especially with commercial proposals.
“I I think we have to think long and hard about what we are doing in terms of identifying people in creating a board that has less power and listens to the public and also takes into consideration the future of this environment,” she said. “Otherwise, we are going to wake up one day and regret the decisions we have made.”
Dacey said she feels that the proposal is being “railroaded through.”
“We are watching so much happening in this town so quickly, everybody hoping that no one is paying attention when we all know what is going on, but this town is about to change and change dramatically,” she said.
Also up for a vote is a proposal to designate Town Hall as a Local Historic Property.
“We have proposed this designation for the Easton Town Hall because the building is worthy of recognition,” said Elizabeth Boyce, a member of the town’s Historic Preservation Review Commission, “and because this designation will qualify our town for preservation funding.”
The town went almost 100 years without a town hall, she said, until in the 1930s land was donated snd the building finished in 1938. It was designed by Frederick Dixon, the first Connecticut State Architect, she said.
