Newtown Voters Reject Budget Hiring Security Guards for Schools

Newtown voters on Tuesday rejected town and school budgets that contained an extra $770,000 to cover the cost of hiring new police officers and security guards for Newtown’s public and private schools.

The $72 million school budget was defeated by 482 votes, and the $39 million town government budget was defeated by 62.

Together, the plans represented a five percent increase in funding for the next fiscal year.

Newtown has been in a recession, so some city officials said they weren’t surprised the bigger budget was defeated. Legislative Council chairman Jeff Capeci said: “At the end of the day, Newtown voters thought it was too much of an increase.”

A second, revised budget is expected to be introduced for a vote soon.