Naugatuck Residents Petition For Budget Referendum

A group of Naugatuck residents from various political parties, Democrats, Republicans, and Unaffiliated voters, finished collecting more than 2,100 signatures for the petition to referendum on the 2014-2015 town budget, said Matthew Katra, a former Republican Burgess candidate in a press release to the Naugatuck Patch. 

More than 2,050 signatures were collected for the petition to referendum on the 2014-2015 Board of Education Budget.  The signed petitions were submitted today to the Naugatuck Borough Clerk’s Office, Katra said in a release. 

The adopted Naugatuck budget will increase spending at a time when Naugatuck residents have said that they cannot support another tax increase, Katra said.  The new mill rate of 45.06 mills will put additional strains on families and senior citizens, who live paycheck to paycheck, Katra said in a release. 

Katra, one of the petition volunteers stated, “the new increase in the mill rate will further drive future businesses away from Naugatuck and make it even harder for residents to choose to live in Naugatuck.”  He went on to say, “Naugatuck residents have had enough and our town leaders need to hold the line on new tax increases. The residents are asking to have a voice in the budget and they no longer want to sit by while the Mayor and the individuals who voted for the budget continue to increase taxes." 

This petition is a call to the Mayor, the Board of Burgesses, and the Finance Board to make the right decisions and lower the mill rate by making necessary and responsible cuts and eliminate new spending, Katra said.