Key Points:
- Hundreds of resident comments on the Board of Finance 2026 Budget Survey highlight concerns about rising taxes and affordability.
- Residents question transparency, financial reporting and town leadership.
- Officials acknowledge feedback but describe it as just one of several data points.
Why it Matters: Growing frustration over taxes and trust in town leadership could shape upcoming budget decisions — and may influence how residents vote at the Annual Town Meeting on whether to approve the proposed FY 2027 budget.
While the Board of Finance had little to say about the hundreds of written comments it received in its annual budget survey, it acknowledged there were some themes of dissatisfaction with governmental operations and management juxtaposed with ever-increasing budgets.
There were 659 distinct written comments amidst the 680 total responses to the survey, although some survey answer submissions contained more than one comment.
According to the summary provided by BOF member Eric Fanwick, “affordability and tax sensitivity” was the primary theme. “Residents repeatedly said the overall tax trajectory feels unsustainable,” he wrote, “with the mill rate and repeated annual increases viewed as difficult to absorb.”
A large share of comments from residents focused on “trust, transparency, and confidence in financial management,” he wrote. “Residents described confusion about financial reporting, frustration with incomplete numbers and skepticism toward leadership communication.”
BOF Chair Tim Birch downplayed the written survey responses as a data point.
“It’s a data point,” he said. “It’s not a data point we should ignore, clearly, because people have strong feelings that we should recognize, but it’s a data point and it’s one of many data points.”
BOF Vice Chair Rudy Escalante described the primary consistent message he saw.
“People are saying Wilton is becoming unaffordable,” Escalante said. “There is clearly a, ‘Why are we spending so much money?’ kind of attitude in the comments and in the survey results, so I think that is an important thing for us to keep in mind as we’re going along.”
BOF member Kim Healy said that she was more focused on the written comments than on the numbers relating to support and opposition of budgets and the mill rate.
“I circled and underlined some of the things that I saw consistently, over and over, and that is the lack of transparency, the significant incomplete financial information, concerns about town leadership and oversight — and I think that’s at us and not so much the Board of Selectmen,” she said.
“The most common [comment] was that town government needs to get its finances in order before asking for more money,” Healy said, “and that probably was the most influential comment to me and I think as we move forward I will refer back to that because it’s true. And I think this board really needs to focus on that because it’s what we were tasked to do.”
The words “too high” appear in many places throughout the full list of survey comments, which run the gamut from short and sassy phrases to detailed paragraphs on concerns.
Some of the shorter snaps include, “Spend less” … “Taxation is theft” … “Stop the spending!!!” … “Cut expenses” … and “Thank you.”
Some comments presented sincere confusion and degrees of worry. “I am very concerned that the prior years’ accounting have not been closed,” one comment read. “I do not see how the BOS can prepare a realistic budget without the prior years’ being closed.”
Other comments were directed toward Town Hall and the administration of First Selectman Toni Boucher. “I do not have a ton of faith in our current first select person,” one comment said, while others were equally critical but were much less polite.
The BOS as a body also took some criticism. “I do not have confidence in the BOS given all the reported process and administrative failings and inefficiencies,” one comment said. “Give[n] the present lack of confidence in management and oversight I feel that this should not be the year to approve an increase of almost any amount.”
Meanwhile, some opined that the town needed to invest more in infrastructure and personnel, with some pointing fingers at the BOF. “The town is understaffed in multiple areas and we need a budget that supports additional hiring,” one comment said. “The BOF is being extremely short sighted in pushing back on headcount.”
Some comments were short and direct with regard to interest and priority. Perhaps the best example was a simple four-word comment:
“We need pickleball courts.”