East Windsor Voters Approve the 2011-12 Budget Tuesday

In a light voter turnout Tuesday, voters approved the East Windsor 2011-12 budget 482-432.

The $33,141,666 spending plan represents a $639,925, or 1.9 percent, increase over the current budget, officials said. The budget is more than $500,000 less than the preliminary budget presented during a public hearing on April 5.

“We’re relieved that the budget passed the first time around,” First Selectwoman Denise Menard said.

In 2010, the budget was defeated in three referendums. And with a change in the town charter, the three defeats triggered a provision automatically setting the budget increase at a 2 percent across the board. In each of those referendums, twice as many people voted as did this year, according to town records.

Menard said by having the budget pass Tuesday, the town saves money on holding multiple referendums and officials have a concrete budget to work with in the coming year.

Selectman Richard Pippin Jr. said town officials should have an easier time with a fixed budget rather than using numbers that are a year old and increasing those by 2 percent like the current fiscal year.

The board of finance approved the 2011-12 proposal at its April 20 meeting. Board members wanted to keep both the budget increase low as well as how much it would cause taxes to rise.

“It passed,” John Mannette, board of finance, said after the vote totals were announced. “We’ve got to move forward.”

At a special meeting after the referendum votes were tallied Tuesday, the board of finance set the tax rate for the budget at 24.3756 mills.

The town government’s budget is $13,941,374 and represents a 1.9 percent increase over the approved 2010-11 budget. The board of education’s budget is $19,726,451 and represented a 4.77 percent increase over the 2010-11 spending plan.

Under the budget, the board of education gets a $578,245 increase and town government gets a $61,680 increase. School officials said last week that the budget will not require eliminating any positions.