Hi. JB Leep, Town Councilmember District 3, here again.
Hello Windsor! I am going to comment here on FB about the recent and current Town budget situation, and the related tax and fee alternatives that are being tossed around. I have a number of posts I am going to make in the next few days.
FYI, even as a Town Council Member, I am free to comment on stuff related to a tax measure as a private resident until such a measure is approved to move forward to the ballot. All of the information I will provide is publicly available, and I did not request special research or other Town money or resources to obtain it.
Please note that most of my informational posts are on my website at [https://jbforwindsor.com](https://jbforwindsor.com).
I’m going to talk first in this post about the budget itself, and efforts to cut costs. I have heard a few comments along the lines of “Why is this problem happening all of a sudden? Why didn’t the TC (Town Council) do something about it a long time ago?”
Well, basically, the idea is just not true. The Town Council and the Town Manager’s office is continually analyzing the budget, and has been working on this specific problem for a few years. We have been working all along to correct the impending problems. Since I am new on the TC, I first partlcipated in a workshop about the issues only last spring 2025, about a year ago. This workshop was at Hampton Inn, was announced as all meetings are, and was open to the public. We went over all the same issues we are discussing now.
But prior to that, in the post-COVID time frame, which would be around late 2022, reserves were building due to stimulus money from the federal government, and people spending more. Town reserves had built up to about $20M, a high number. Then, the stimulus went away, and expenses were rising, notably insurance at +$500K and police costs.
Budget cutting started. In 2024, the TC considered a ballot measure for a Sales Tax but it was determined not to be the right time.
At the workshop in mid spring 2025 at the Hampton Inn, the TC voiced an opinion that we would investigate the alternatives for raising funds, and at a future time pick the best methods.
Going into budgeting late last spring, Town Manager asked all department heads to make whatever cuts they could to budgets, to chop expenses as much as they possibly could. Finally, TC was presented with a list of final items that might be cut, and we made some more cuts. The result was cuts of $2.7M for 25-26 and $3.2M for 26-27. Even after these cuts, bringing expenditures to the minimum we felt we could, the budget was still $4-5M in the red.
The point is that the TC and Town staff have been working hard on the problem and solutions for quite a while. The consideration of the budget issues have not come up “all of a sudden”.
More in another post. See you soon.