Windsor Town Council Special Meeting on FY2025-26 Preliminary Budget – April 29, 2025

The Windsor Town Council held a hybrid special meeting on April 29, 2025, in Council Chambers and via Zoom to take public comment and conduct preliminary deliberations on the proposed town budget. Each public speaker was given three minutes. The meeting closed without a final vote; final deliberations and another public comment period are scheduled for Wednesday, April 30, 2025. Note: The posted agenda in the source material is dated April 28, 2025, but repeated references in the transcript place the meeting on Tuesday, April 29, 2025; this summary uses the April 29 date.

Public Comments & Testimony

• Dr. Linda Alexander expressed concern that rising real estate taxes make housing unaffordable and continue exclusionary housing practices, citing state Senator Doug McCrory's recollection that his parents could not afford the suburbs when he was young.
• John Catharino opposed the current budget proposal, saying last year's taxes rose 18 percent, or $789, and the proposal would add 20 percent, or $904; he also said his property taxes have risen 450 percent since 1987. He asked for town and Board of Education budgets broken down to the lowest level and shared with taxpayers before the referendum.
• Sally Gersman, a parent of two children receiving special-education accommodations, urged the council to keep the Board of Education budget as passed. She said the administration already cut almost $1 million from this year's budget and saved roughly $400,000 by reducing student outplacements; further cuts, she said, would cause layoffs and disrupt schools.
• Lawyer Lockhart, a Board of Education member and volunteer fire captain, supported the BOE budget and defended firefighter stipends as a small token of thanks. He said more than 80 volunteer firefighters provide a major tax benefit to the town and put their lives at risk.
• Dennis Bomber, an elected constable, spoke in favor of the BOE budget, saying Windsor's schools are why he moved to town and that the town should invest in children; he suggested the rainy-day fund could be used if needed.
• Jack Willen opposed the proposal, saying his taxes would rise $2,035 over two years, a 26.1 percent increase. He proposed three reforms: index senior property-tax increases to Social Security COLAs, freeze senior property taxes at age 65 or 70, and raise the senior tax-relief income limit to about $75,000 from $62,200.
• An unnamed speaker said homeownership is becoming unaffordable and questioned the BOE budget increase, specifically why third-grade reading problems are not corrected early; he also asked what happened to additional revenue from the first and second half of revaluation.
• Becky Jacobson, parent of five children with IEPs and 504 plans, said she supports paying higher taxes for a good education and opposes cutting the BOE budget; she warned that deep cuts could make Windsor like Enfield, which has eliminated school programs.
• A resident at 131 Toby Ave, a 65-year-old retiree, said his taxes rose 45 percent, from $3,600 to $5,200, and criticized the shift from commercial to residential valuation. He said he may sell his house and leave Windsor, and he asked the council to fix the situation.
• Tracy Zodder thanked the council and supported the budget, saying revaluation affects many towns, the town lowered the mill rate to help offset increases, and cutting school funding will not improve test scores.
• Jeremy Halleck said the budget is too high and suggested the town is 'double dipping' on mental-health services, pointing to CHR's regional services; he said he voted for the BOE budget only to avoid an even larger increase and asked the council to respect voters' referendum decisions.
• Ayanna Taylor, vice president of the Board of Education, urged support for the BOE budget, calling it 'bare minimum' with no fluff; she noted most of it covers salaries and benefits, and said her board motion passed on a bipartisan basis.

Discussion Items

• Mayor and councilmembers stressed that Town Council and Board of Education members are unpaid volunteers and receive no stipends, salaries, bonuses, or tax breaks. Several explicitly denied that officials get financial benefits.
• The town manager explained that revaluation is state-mandated every five years, with an option to phase in new values; Windsor chose a two-year phase-in. He gave examples of commercial revenue losses that shifted burdens to residential taxpayers: one commercial taxpayer's payments are projected to drop from $1.8 million to roughly $720,000; another is projected to pay $800,000 less; and Walgreens on International Drive is projected to pay $300,000 to $400,000 less, for a total shift of about $2.3 million. He also noted the council used about $4 million in reserves in FY24 for pay-as-you-go capital projects to avoid long-term debt.
• Councillor Naeem provided regional context: West Hartford has a mill rate of 44.78 compared with Windsor's below-30 rate, and a BOE budget of $214 million for roughly 60,000 to 61,000 residents; Avon's BOE budget is $118 million for about 20,000 residents. She noted the council previously increased senior tax-credit income eligibility to $62,000, increased the veterans exemption to $20,000, and created a line-of-duty death exemption. She said roughly $4.5 million in cuts equals about one mill of tax rate.
• Councillor King added that revaluation did not create more total value but shifted it because residential values increased more than commercial; the same mill rate must apply to all property classes except motor vehicles. He described the BOE budget as bipartisan and said the town is not proposing new or heavily expanded spending.
• Councillor Ellifeld explained the town's balanced-budget process and the calculation of the mill rate, noting collection is assumed at 98.75 percent. He said the volunteer fire department saves the town $5 million to $10 million per year compared with a paid department and that he would support reasonable stipend increases. He also warned that using cash reserves could create a $14 million budget hole next year and threaten Windsor's triple-A bond rating.
• Councillor Pelkey said affordability is the overriding message from taxpayers. He cited examples from public records: his own two-year increase was 26.6 percent, and increases in other neighborhoods ranged from about 25 percent to over 30 percent. He compared Social Security COLAs of 3.2 percent in 2023 and 2.5 percent in 2024 with CPI increases and said Windsor's budget increases are outpacing some inflation measures. He argued the town should bend the spending curve down because no large new tax abatements or developments are on the horizon.
• Asked what a zero percent town operating budget would require, the town manager said it would mean cutting about $2.9 million from the proposed non-Board-of-Education operating budget. Options include reducing pay-as-you-go capital projects such as DPW fleet replacement, about $900,000; street repaving, about $800,000; and the public safety equipment fund, about $500,000; or cutting roughly 30 full-time-equivalent positions. He noted the library receives about $2 million from the general fund. Councillor Naeem added that zeroing the town side and the BOE side would cut about 45 to 50 BOE staff positions and would save roughly $374 per year on a house valued at about $321,000, far less than the service and staffing losses involved.
• The deputy mayor noted that Windsor's detailed budget is online and that the town won the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award. The mayor acknowledged an email about mental-health services and said the council would review those line items, including police co-responder supports, before the final vote.

Key Outcomes

• No final budget decision or mill-rate vote was made; the meeting ended with a unanimous voice vote to adjourn.
• The council will hold final deliberations after another public comment period on Wednesday, April 30, 2025.
• Additional public budget forums were announced: Tuesday, May 6, at 330 Windsor Avenue at 6:30 p.m.; Wednesday, May 7, at Poquonock Elementary School at 6:30 p.m. with the League of Women Voters; and Thursday, May 8, at the Senior Center at 10 a.m.
• Council members asked the town manager to continue providing cut scenarios and information on mental-health-related budget items before final deliberations.