BERLIN — Berlin voters approved the town’s revised fiscal year 2026-27 budget Tuesday during a second referendum. This vote was held one month after residents rejected the original spending plan and said the proposed budgets were too low.
According to unofficial referendum results available at the town’s website, voters approved the revised budget proposal by a vote of 795 to 282. An advisory question asking whether the budget was “too high” or “too low” resulted in 638 votes for “too high” and 326 for “too low.”
“I’d like to thank everyone who took the time to vote in Berlin’s second budget referendum,” Town Manager Ryan Curley told the Herald. “Many thanks to our Registrars of Voters, town clerk and all of the poll workers for their efforts.”
Town officials revised the proposal after the first referendum in April, when voters rejected both the town government and Board of Education budgets. During that vote, many residents signaled support for increased education spending and argued the original proposals did not provide enough funding.
The revised proposal increased the total general fund budget from about $110.08 million to approximately $110.26 million. The proposed mill rate also increased slightly from 31.28 to 31.32.
The original proposed FY27 budget represented a 3.48% increase over the current year and included a 0.66 mill increase.
The Board of Education budget failed during the first referendum by a vote of 1,022 to 459, while the town government budget failed 1,237 to 249.
Following the April vote, town officials said the Board of Finance would review the referendum results and consider changes before forwarding a revised proposal to the Town Council.
Officials had previously indicated the education budget could see a larger increase because voters clearly supported additional school funding during the first referendum.
Tuesday’s vote came the day after Memorial Day and drew a lower turnout than the first referendum. According to town tally sheets, 988 voters participated in the second referendum, representing about 6.12% of eligible voters.
“Although voter participation was down in the second referendum, turnout was still higher than last year, which is encouraging,” Curley said. “I anticipate that the Board of Finance will take these results into consideration when they meet tonight to discuss the budget.”
During the first referendum, town officials reported turnout of 1,512 voters, or about 9.39% of eligible voters, roughly double the turnout the previous year.
If voters had rejected the budget a second time, the process would have moved to the next stage, where the town could set the mill rate without another referendum.