OLD LYME–Two young men sitting with their parents in the auditorium of the Lyme-Old Lyme High School Wednesday night were recognized at the end of the 2.5-hour Town Budget Meeting for making it through a crash course in the New England town meeting form of government
First Selectwoman Martha Shoemaker acknowledged the boys after a record-setting crowd of more than 200 residents and taxpayers approved the $45.39 million 2025-56 budget and five new or amended ordinances.
No meeting in the last seven years had drawn more than 60 people, according to Shoemaker.
“You have received the best education in what a town meeting can be like,” she told Joseph Jewett, 11, and Joshua Jewett, 9.
The budget passed 167 votes to 40 in a year when a property revaluation left a majority of homeowners in town facing a tax hike in excess of 4.7%. Those whose property values rose more than average are looking at relatively higher tax increases.
The town meeting is a form of direct democracy that allows all eligible voters 18 years old and up to discuss and decide important matters rather than letting elected officials do it for them.
While October 2024 data from the state Office of Policy and Management shows that 103 towns in the state have a town meeting form of government, many of them leave the ultimate budget decision up to a machine vote at a day-long referendum as a way to encourage more participation.
Shoemaker applauded the Jewett family for showing the boys that their “voices matter.”
“Even though (the votes) may not go the way you want, your voices are heard,” Shoemaker said.
Fire Marshal Dave Roberge said he counted 222 people in the auditorium Wednesday night. With 207 people voting on the budget, that leaves about 15 people like the Jewett children who were there to watch and learn.
Procedural questions about how to vote dominated the early part of the meeting, with an early motion to use a paper ballot on all seven questions failing by a vote of 87 to 110.
Voters decided to use a hand vote for the budget, which proved the most contentious issue on the call to meeting. They raised fluorescent green chits in the air to signify their voting status as Democratic Deputy Registrar of Voters Katherine Thuma and Republican Deputy Registrar of Voters John Mesham counted the chits row by row.
When the results of the vote to approve the budget were counted, Town Meeting Moderator Fran Sablone put it this way: “The motion carries.”
Voting down the budget would have required the town to bill taxpayers based on the current budget until a new spending plan was approved, according to town officials. That means the town would be locked into paying its share of the Region 18 education budget, which voters passed in a referendum earlier this month, even though the expense wouldn’t be reflected in tax bills.
Board of Finance Chairman Bennett J. Bernblum, who during the meeting used the word “stupid” to describe such a scenario, was asked to clarify what he meant.
“It would be stupid because it would put us into disarray,” he said.
The meeting, originally scheduled for May 19, was postponed due to overcapacity at the Town Hall. Fire code there allows only 124 people in the meeting room and lobby.
Tax Impact
The finance board immediately after the Town Meeting convened to set the tax rate for the coming year at 16.23 mills.
The current tax rate is 24.4 mills. After taking the property revaluation into account – and if spending did not increase at all in the coming budget – the tax rate would have been 15.5 mills.
A mill represents $1 in tax per $1,000 of assessed property value.
Bernblum in his presentation said a house appraised at $400,000 with a valuation mirroring the average 57.4% increase to the grand list is now worth $629,600. The tax bill for that homeowner based on the 2025-26 budget will be $7,153 – an increase of $321, or 4.7%, over the current tax bill.
Assessor Melinda Kronfeld has said 3,312 properties in town will see their tax bills go up more than 4.7%, while 2,331 properties will be looking at an increase less than that, or even a tax decrease.
The finance board last month voted to use $800,000 from the town’s predicted $14.2 million ‘Rainy Day Fund’ to help mitigate the impact to taxpayers. The vote was a compromise between Republicans, who wanted to use less, and Democrats, who wanted to use more.
Bernblum said the town’s healthy savings helped secure a AAA bond rating from S&P Global Ratings, which translates to the most favorable interest rates when the town goes out to bond. He said he was advised that the finance board’s decision to dip into the Rainy Day Fund should not adversely affect the town’s rating.
Bernblum said the $800,000 allocation, combined with $171, 350 in cuts identified by Shoemaker and town hall department heads at the request of the finance board, reduced the original budget proposal’s impact on taxpayers by almost a million dollars.
New and Amended Ordinances
The remaining issues on the meeting call were determined by voice votes. The most controversial was an ordinance codifying golf cart use in the Sound View and Hawk’s Nest beach areas.
The golf carts must be outfitted with numerous safety features to qualify as the kind of “low speed vehicle” authorized last year by the state to operate on any public roads with speed limits of 25 mph or less.
Previously, state statutes left it up to cities and towns to decide if they wanted to allow golf carts on local roads. Now, it’s up to those municipalities to specify if they don’t want them – or to limit where they can travel.
Shoemaker said the ordinance adds several streets in Hawk’s Nest Beach to a program established by the Sound View Commission a few years ago in cooperation with the previous administration of the Board of Selectmen.
Golf carts registered with the town will be allowed to travel on town-owned roads in the beach areas from sunrise to sunset.
There will be an initial fine of $90 for those caught driving an unregistered golf cart, driving outside the allowed areas and hours, or missing necessary equipment. The second offense comes with a $180 fine, while the third offense will result in the golf cart being impounded.
Golf carts must be registered annually and can only be operated with a valid driver’s license.
Sound View Commission Chairman Frank Pappalardo said the program has “worked out very, very well safety-wise” without being a hardship on residents. He cited 25 golf carts registered currently, with more joining each year.
Shoemaker described the ordinance as a way to keep communities safe in a town with only six full-time police officers to patrol the streets. She said voting the proposal down would result in the Board of Selectmen, which serves as the local traffic authority, outlawing golf carts completely.
“A ‘no’ vote will mean that we will prohibit golf carts in the Soundview and Hawks Nest area,” she said. “Because we cannot have people riding around in golf carts without some rules.”
Resident Steven Ross objected to the take-it-or-leave-it approach on what he described as an overly restrictive ordinance.
“That’s a threat. It’s heavy-handed. It’s inappropriate,” he said. “I think this ordinance should be reviewed and redrafted and brought to another town meeting.”
Shoemaker said the town can consider expanding the ordinance to include the Rogers Lake area in the future if enforcement goes smoothly this summer.
Other changes outlined on the call to meeting and approved without controversy included updating the volunteer fire and ambulance tax abatement ordinance to increase the maximum amount of the abatement from $1000 to $2000 and to extend it to retirees; revising requirements regarding publication of notices of special and regular Town Meetings in newspapers read by seasonal residents; revising the Old Lyme Harbor Management ordinance to slow down boats and jet skis and increase fines for violations; and revising language affecting parking areas on private property in the Sound View Beach area to, among other things, provide for on-site attendants.
A Learning Process
Joseph Jewett after the meeting said he ended up at the meeting with his brother because their parents, Dave and Daphanie Jewett, didn’t give them a choice.
While 9-year-old Josh Jewett said he really didn’t think they learned anything, Dave Jewett said the kids got a lesson about the importance of voting and having a say in where tax dollars go – even if they didn’t realize it.
Dave Jewett said he voted in support of the budget.
“I’ve been in the town my whole life,” he said. “Now I’ve got my kids growing up in this town.”
Editor’s Notes: i) Bennett Bernblum is a financial supporter of LymeLine.com, but has no input to the editorial process, which remains completely independent.