On the surface, it almost sounded like a joke.

“At this point I do not intend to vote at the referendum,” Board of Education Chairman David Heller said during the board's meeting at the Tuttle Building Thursday evening.

But after that statement, in front of the other board members and the audience, there was no “just kidding,” or other retort to indicate his remark as a jest.

Heller indicated he personally would not vote in the $105.5 million budget referendum on July 19 for one main reason: he didn’t want to contribute to the 15 percent of eligible voters necessary to make the referendum valid. According to the borough's charter, a referendum is only made valid after that particular percentage of voters in a municipality casts a ballot.

So, if less than 15 percent of the electorate votes then the referendum would be thrown out and the budget would pass automatically. This would hold true even if the voters at referendum chose to reject the budget.

The theory stands as such: those who support the budget would not vote at all, rather than go and vote yes to contribute to the 15 percent turnout, Heller indicated.

Reached for clarification on his comments on Friday, Heller said he is in support of the budget and would ideally vote "yes" to help it pass. He said voting in general is very important in elections, and he is not against voting at all.

But in this case, Heller said, a non-vote is a vote in support of the budget.

"I think by not voting you're actually voting because you’re keeping the minimum (voter turnout requirement) down,” Heller said.

He said he felt the Board of Finance and Board of Mayor and Burgesses did an admirable job on the budget, spending several months crafting it.

But he said it's likely those coming out against the budget would outnumber the supporters. When the budget was adopted in June, it included a 1.69 percent spending increase and a 2.45 percent tax hike.

"I don't anticipate we'd have enough people coming out and voting in support of the budget," he said. "I can't imagine anyone saying 'hey I am going to go down to the train station (where the referendum is held) and vote for a tax increase.'"

Heller, a Republican, said he didn't want to pay anymore in taxes either, but added there are regular functions in town that have to be paid for and increasing costs are part of the process.

"We have to be concerned with educating our children," said Heller.

The reasoning behind not voting, however, depends on what the turnout would be. Banking on the fact that 17.8 percent of Naugatuck residents voted in the general election in May, Heller indicated he'd hope that less than 15 percent would come out and vote.

In the last two referendums in 2008, on June 30 and Aug. 26, approximately 16 percent of voters turned out, according to Borough Clerk Nancy DiMeo.

Glenn Connan, a newly elected member of the board, was the only other person to react to Heller’s statement. Connan said he intends to vote in the budget, however he declined to state which way he would go.

Heller said he spoke with some other board members who intend to vote "yes" in support of the budget.

The only polling location, the Naugatuck train station, will be open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. on July 19.

Borough officials are making preprations for if the budget is voted down. On July 20, there is a budget meeting pending the results of the referendum, followed by a public hearing on July 21 at 7 p.m. at Naugatuck High School.