East Windsor Voters Reject 2013-14 Budget at Second Referendum

For the second time, East Windsor voters resoundingly rejected a budget for the 2013-14 fiscal year on Tuesday evening.

The Board of Finance on Wednesday evening is now tasked with cutting from the $34.83 million budget that voters rejected, which represented a 1.98 percent spending increase over current levels. The rejected budget included $20.61 million for schools and 14.24 million for the town government.

People who voted in favor of the budget this time will take cold comfort that the gulf between “Yes” and “No” votes is not as significant as the first referendum.
The final unofficial tally was 729 “No” votes and 441 “Yes” votes on Monday, which is less than the 2 to 1 ratio two weeks ago, when 903 voted against the budget to 405 who voted in favor.

At the polls at Town Hall after the results were announced, Selectwoman Dale Nelson was visibly disappointed.

“We’re at less than two percent,” Nelson said. “What do you want to do? Close the school doors? What now? What do you want to close. That’s where we’re at. It’s very unfortunate. We hit our public safety hard. We hit our Board of Education. This is very disappointing.”

Just 16 percent of the registered voters in town cast ballots, which was less than the 16.7 percent who voted in the first referendum.

If the next budget set by the Board of Finance fails at the third referendum, then the town charter requires the adoption of a budget that calls for a 2 percent spending increase.

With the finance board expected to cut more from the budget to bring it below the 1.97 spending increase this time around, that means that more likely than not people who voted against the budget the first two times will vote in favor of it.

Conversely, while those who voted in favor of the budget two times in a row will now likely vote against it.