Bloomfield residents who turned out at a referendum Wednesday overwhelmingly rejected the proposed budget, but there weren’t enough votes to make the outcome count.
Unofficial results showed 1,934 people voted against the budget while just 464 voted in favor, but the $117 million budget still wasn’t defeated.
By town charter, 15% of voters must vote “no” for a budget to fail at referendum. That means opponents fell 265 votes short of the 2,296 they needed.
Even so, leaders of the opposition said they’d won a victory in showing public dissatisfaction with the town council’s spending and Mayor Danielle Wong’s administration. The most vocal critics of the budget also have been sharply outspoken against Wong and her predominantly Democratic council.
“The widespread view is that we need to replace eight of the nine councilors this November, keeping only Councilor (Shamar) Mahon, who has steadfastly stood up for the people, even when he stands alone,” resident James Biffer said Wednesday. “The results of the referendum precisely mirror the widespread frustration, discontent, and disappointment with most of this council.”
Former Mayor Suzette DeBeatham-Brown, a critic of Wong, said the community had come together to send a message, and later said she is very strongly considering a campaign to get back on the council in November.
But budget supporters were celebrating, saying the town had avoided service cuts that could’ve been necessary if the spending plan had failed.
“We really pared the budget down to where we didn’t include a custodian for our new library or a much-needed accountant for finance,” Republican Councilor Joe Merritt said. “If the no’s had won there wasn’t much we could do to please them. We could only reduce education to this year’s level by state law, so most cuts would need to be on the town side which had already been cut below maintenance level.”
Wong’s administration has emphasized for months that homeowners would need to brace for revaluation, which largely drove residential assessments much higher while dropping for businesses. Much of that resulted from the super-heated housing market since the pandemic; the massive jump in home prices has also led to higher assessments.
“The legitimate problem was a massive shift of the tax burden from commercial to residential, which was beyond town council’s control. All we could do was to implement phase-in, which we did,” Merritt said. “A large number of residents had huge increases in their assessed value which understandably caused them consternation after calculating their taxes. Cutting our increase from 4% to zero wouldn’t offset most of the increase for the residents with the largest increases from revaluation anyway, and we might have faced a second round.”
Two prominent names in the opposition camp were DeBeatham-Brown and former Councilor Rickford Kirton; Wong’s slate of challengers defeated them and others in a divisive 2023 Democratic primary.,
Democratic Councilor Kevin McClary, a close Wong ally, said Wednesday too many budget critics offered no solution.
“This was not a landslide referendum on the substance of the budget. It was a referendum driven by loud voices, many of whom have been part of the problem — not the solution,” he said. “This council inherited many challenges created in part by some of the very individuals now criticizing us. Let’s not forget: the same folks who are now calling the budget ‘too high’ voted to raise taxes 6.5% just over a two years ago.”
DeBeatham-Brown took a different view.
“I believe the referendum was a victory for our town, regardless of the final outcome. We haven’t had a referendum in years (since 2006 I believe), and with only nine days to inform and encourage residents to vote ‘no,’ 1,934 voters out of a total of 2,398 is no small feat,” she said.
“This strong participation sends a clear message to our town council: the residents lack confidence in the budget they proposed. The referendum’s purpose was straightforward — to ask the town council to tighten the town’s fiscal belt during these uncertain times,” she said.
When asked how to reduce the sniping that’s become common at council meetings and on Bloomfield-related social media, McClary said “We need to call out hypocrisy when we see it; respectfully, but clearly. The political sniping is coming from a handful of voices frustrated that they no longer are on town council and the council rejected projects they supported. They want to confuse residents into believing they can have more services for less money, while ignoring the reality of fixed costs and contractual obligations.”
Neither McClary nor Wong are running for re-election this year, and it’s unclear how the rift within the local Democratic Party will play out during endorsement season.
Biffer said he’s looking for change.
“This council routinely conducts town business in caucuses, contrary to FOIA requirements; insults and demeans citizens and even fellow town councilors if anyone disagrees, or criticizes or even asks an intelligent, probing question; and utilizes their hirelings to attempt to intimidate the citizens who elected them and pay their salaries,” he said.
McClary defended the council, and said opponents refused to cite specific spending cuts or service reductions they’d accept.
“What we can’t keep doing is pretending we can cut millions while preserving the same level of service. This council has been intentional, transparent and responsible,” he said. “We’ve done our job — now others need to step up and be honest about the tradeoffs.