The Windsor Town Council held a hybrid special meeting on April 29, 2026, at 6:30 PM in Council Chambers and via Zoom. The meeting focused on setting a referendum date for the Broad Street Traffic Calming and Pedestrian Safety Project and conducting final deliberations and votes on the proposed Fiscal Year 2027 budget. After public comment and extensive discussion, the council approved a $159.4 million general fund expenditure budget and set both the Broad Street project referendum and the budget referendum for Tuesday, May 12, 2026.
Good evening and welcome to the special meeting of April 29th. Here in the Town Hall Chamber, and we are calling this meeting to order. All counselors are here, and tonight, Counselor Glauck Hoffman is excused. Please state your name and address when you are called on, you'll be prompted that you are now unmuted. And for those dialing in by phone once prompted, you will then press star six to unmute for clear communication. We ask that you do not place the call on speaker phone. I have no virtual attendees with their hand raised. Thank you, Mr. Colby. So we'll move to the town hall chamber. And again, we are in public comment for the fiscal year proposed budget 27, and you will have three minutes to speak. And at the sound of the chime, we do ask that you conclude your comments. And please state your name and address. Michelle Benelli, 1152 Pekwanic Abbey. I'm not going to be here that long. You don't need the flags. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. I've lived there for almost 19 years and have a family of six. With the reevaluation and everything else that's gone on in the town, our property taxes have gone up 30% in three years. That's a lot of money for a family of six to bear. And while I understand that inflation continues to roll and that budgets follow inflation, they go up as well. Going up and above the inflationary rate is putting an additional weight on the citizens of our town. Inflation the last two years was uh nationally 2.6% and 2.9%. Uh while it was a lot higher before that, uh, and I understand that drove a lot of the tax rate increases. Uh we saw the school budget go up five percent and five percent uh in those years, substantially higher than the inflation rate, and and now there's your uh four and a half million dollar increase in the school budget. Uh even if you take that at the prorated portion that would fall on the town and not be the portion paid for by our state government or federal government, uh that comes out to somewhere between 1200 and 1300 in additional cost per pupil enrolled in our public schools. Uh that that's a lot of money to increase. Uh and and while uh budget cuts and budget limitations uh are difficult, uh they don't have to be inhumane. I think that there are places to look for uh ways to save uh on our expenses uh to to economize. Um but those increases um as they've continued to roll are are not sustainable. They don't make our town affordable. Uh and this compounding increases uh you know it's not a one-year thing. That increases this year, it will increase again next year, and those those those numbers add together, they don't stop adding up. Um so sort of this the squeeze is on. Taxes are up from the state, taxes are up from the federal government. Uh, I would really love to see our town live within its means and and limit how much we increase our property taxes. Thank you. Thank you. I live at 166 Palisado Avenue in Windsor. I don't have a lot to add to the comments that were just stated here for you all. He has very uh clearly and concisely laid out for you the numbers and the figures, but I would just appeal to your sense of compassion for those who are struggling in this community. I think a lot of people have been pushed to the edge financially in the past several years, and I think Windsor is no exception to that. We have a wonderful community of people who are very supportive of one another. I see this all the time on our online forums, and I think that that's great, but we need to reinforce that sense of community and helping one another right here in this room by realizing that although we all would love to spend as much as possible supporting our students and teachers and educational system. If people's income isn't increasing at the same rate as you're increasing the taxes, there's simply nowhere for that money to come from other than the daily necessities of life. Things such as medicines, particularly for our senior citizens that are on fixed incomes, they simply do not have additional income from which to draw. And many families are in the same situation. So I would just ask you all to consider whether these increases are that dire that it's worth pushing people into a more desperate situation than really is necessary.