SCHOOL FINANCE; REGIONAL GOVERNMENT; REFERENDA; EDUCATION (GENERAL);

EDUCATION - REGIONAL;

You asked for a description of the process a regional school district must follow to adopt its budget at a referendum. You asked what statutory changes would be needed to require that a district budget automatically go to a referendum.

BUDGET APPROVAL PROCESS

On the first Monday or the first Tuesday in May, regional school districts must hold an annual district meeting at which the annual budget is first presented for adoption (CGS § 10-47). The regional board of education warns and conducts a district meeting like a town meeting. At least two weeks before the meeting, the board must hold a public meeting to propose the budget for the next fiscal year at which anyone can recommend spending changes. After the public hearing, the board finalizes its budget preparations, makes copies of the budget available to anyone who requests it, and delivers copies to the town clerks of the towns in the region at least five days before the May meeting.

At the meeting (which under CGS § 10-51 must be held on the first Monday in May, with no mention of Tuesday), the board presents the budget, including:

1. estimated receipts and expenditures for the next fiscal year,

2.

estimated receipts and expenditures for the current fiscal year,

3. estimated operating funds surplus or deficit for the current fiscal year,

4. bonded or other debt,

5. estimates of the per pupil expenditures for the current and next fiscal years,

6. other information the board considers necessary.

The vote on the budget may be taken at the meeting. Registered voters and eligible property owners (U. S. citizens who are at least 18 years old and own property with an assessment of at least $ 1,000) are entitled to vote, but no one can vote more than once, even if eligible in more than one town in the region.

Alternatively, the law provides that the vote on a regional school district budget may be taken at a referendum. On the day after the district meeting, voters can go to the polls and use paper ballots or voting machines to approve or reject the budget. Under current law, a referendum is held in the following cases.

1. The regional board of education indicates in its call to the meeting that the vote on the motion to adopt the budget will be taken on the day following the meeting.

2. At least 200 people who are eligible to vote at the meeting submit a petition to the board at least three days before the meeting asking for a vote on the budget on the day after the meeting.

If a budget is rejected, the board has four weeks to call another district meeting to consider the same or an amended budget, giving at least one week’s notice. The same procedures for voting by referendum apply. District meetings are held until voters approve a budget.

AUTOMATIC REFERENDUM

To require all regional school district budgets to be voted on at a referendum every year, Section 10-51 of the General Statutes must be amended. Proposed legislation would require the regional board to designate in its call to the meeting that the vote on the motion to adopt the budget shall be by paper ballot or machine vote on the next day, which the board is permitted to do under current law. The legislature also would remove from the same section the option district residents have to petition for a referendum on the budget the day after the district meeting, which would be unnecessary.

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