The Board of Finance announced in a press release that its FY 2025 budget survey is now available for resident responses.
In advance of its budget deliberations, the Board of Finance is asking residents to complete a survey to provide feedback on the FY2025 proposed 4.9% increase in the Board of Education budget, proposed 4.1% increase in the Board of Selectmen budget, and the 24.1 proposed mill rate. The survey is available online or downloadable from the town website. Responses must be received by Friday, March 29 at 5 p.m.
Downloaded surveys can be sent via email to the Board of Finance.
Options to learn more about the proposed budgets:
- Review the submitted budgets online:
- Review the Board of Finance meeting agendas and watch videos of the meetings, as well as the videos of the public hearings (when available the day after the hearing) on the Town website.
- Learn more about the budget process on the Town website’s “Budget Development” page.
Options to provide feedback about the proposed budgets and mill rate:
- Complete the Board of Finance survey online or by downloading the survey here and emailing it to the Board of Finance. Responses must be received by Friday, March 29 at 5 p.m.
- Email the Board of Finance
- Provide public comment at the public hearings, both of which take place at the Middlebrook Auditorium (131 School Rd.)
- Board of Selectmen — Monday, March 18 at 7 p.m.
- Board of Education — Wednesday, March 20 at 7 p.m.
Questions about the public hearings, the proposed mill rate and the survey should be emailed to the Board of Finance.
Questions about the Board of Selectmen proposed budget should be emailed to the Board of Selectmen.
Questions about the Board of Education proposed budget should be emailed to the Board of Education.
The pushback from the other 5 BOF members appears to have helped a great deal, this is much better than previous years question-wise; instead of asking about specific mill rates, it simply offers yes and no questions about the BOS/BOE budget proposals and the overall rate. If anything it almost seems to favor higher budgets, since the question about the mill rate comes after the BOS/BOE ones, and is surrounded by a lot of other language that almost seems to be begging you to take the time to research what the new mill rate would cost you so you can get mad about it.
Still should be taken with a grain of salt, since it’s an online survey and the results will depend heavily on the effectiveness of both sides’ turnout operations, but hopefully at least it’ll give a more accurate readout of what the statistically-random subsample of the Wilton electorate who happened to take the time to fill out the survey thinks about the budget.
I appreciate the efforts taken with this year’s version of the survey to lay out the issues in a manner that more closely approximates the process that the BoE, BoS and BoF each go through in the run-up to our Town Meeting. This version more clearly presents both the issues and the process.
An additional tweak that would enhance both the reliability of such a survey, and its perceived legitimacy, would be if the BoF explicitly asked that constituents answer it once, and only once.
In addition to the information provided in the press release, it’s worth noting that the BOF utilizes an algorithm designed to identify and track duplicate respondents. This algorithm has been consistently applied in past survey releases and has successfully detected and flagged redundant responses.
Matt Raimondi
Chair, Board of Finance