Politics & Government

Just 8.7 Percent Of Voters Turn Out To Vote On Budget

The 'No' vote has 815 tallies as opposed to 358 'Yes' votes.


Less than 9 percent of the registered voters in town came out to vote on the annual budget referendum Tuesday.

The vote read 815 "No" votes and 358 "Yes" votes.

That's a total of just 1,173 voters who cast a vote.

"It is frustrating," Berlin Mayor Adam Salina said. "To see 92 percent of the voters stay home is tough. Whether they are happy and content with the budget is up for debate. The 'No' votes will always be there. In past years people only came out when big cuts of things like sports were being threatened to be cut. I have never been one to threaten cutting things like that to scare people."

The Mayor said he was also not happy that more people did not participate in the budget process.

"We have been working on this budget for five months," Salina said. "We have had budget meetings, Town Council meetings, a public hearing and we had only a few questions along the way. I'm all for proposed cuts and I will listen to anything but it has to be a substantial cut."

Salina said to cut 1/10 of a mill off the budget, the Council will have to trim $220,000. To cut one mill from the budget, the Council needs to cut $2.2 million. 

"We will listen to the voters and honor the democracy so we will cut from this budget," Salina said. "I have no idea where we will cut or what we will look at but we will cut. To not listen to the voters would not be responsible. 

"We will have some terrible and tough decisions to make now. We will have to make substantial cuts to the budget and department heads will be asked again where they can cut. We will ask the Board of Education if we can cut but then it will be up to them to decide what they have to cut. The Department heads have more expertise in what their departments need and what they can get by without."



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