Past town surveys indicate town residents want both increased service AND also want lower taxes. That is not something that can be easily accomplished without being fiscally responsible but the Town of Windsor has some built in advantages. In the past, its two rivers provided transportation advantages for commerce and great farmland. Closer to today, developable land and a nearby airport and highways provide logistical advantages for businesses to locate to Windsor. One result of this is that Windsor has a business property tax base that is the envy of many CT towns. In a state where the middle class is burdened with high property tax levels, the business tax base in Windsor has helped lighten the property tax load for Windsor residents.
   There are two primary voting opportunities available to registered voters in Windsor to also influence the level of local services and tax levels: Municipal elections and budget votes at a referendum. In short, municipal elections determine the leaders that set policy and propose budgets that affect town services and tax levels. Referendum voting on the town budget serves as a check on whether the elected leaders have set town services, priorities, and tax levels at an acceptable level. As part of policy setting and management, prudent and fiscally responsible spending practices allow a given level of service to be provided at a lower tax level.

   While close to 80% of registered voters participate in Presidential elections, only a fraction of that amount participate in electing local leaders or vote on a town budget. A great deal of everyday life is influenced by the what happens on the local level, such as the education and safety of family, the condition of the roads traveled on, or the level of property taxes and its effect on family budgets. You have the opportunity to influence this in both municipal elections as well as in voting on the town budget. Skip voting and you miss an opportunity to effect the quality of the place in which you live.

   While it is not uncommon for a proposed budget to fail in a referendum vote in CT towns that have such a vote, it is uncommon that referendum voting would extend to five votes to adopt a budget. If the current Town Council wanted to truly understand why the budget was not passing, the budget ballot could have included supplemental advisory questions concerning the level of spending on education and non-education services. The Town of Windsor has done that in the past and it is a standard practice in some towns to always put advisory questions on the ballot. While public comments and emails from voters are helpful guidance, the majority of those that vote do not provide their rationale. The absence of advisory questions on the ballot allows more room for speculation and partisan politics to play a role in adjusting a budget following a referendum defeat, and for the true will of the voters to be too easily dismissed or ignored.
   Comments on social media (Click here for example) by some members of the current majority party indicate they do not favor the continuation of the current budget referendum process as guaranteed in the Town Charter. This raises genuine concerns that if the current majority party continues their rule of the Town Council, they may push to alter the Town Charter and either take away the taxpayers' right to vote on the budget at referendum, alter the automatic nature of the referendum, or place restrictions on referendum voting that could limit its effectiveness. For example, referendum voting could be limited to one or two votes by registered voters or require an impossibly high level of voter turnout for the budget vote to be considered valid, in essence potentially giving the Town Council the final say on the budget. Again, this is just another example of why voting matters as it can even effect one's future right to vote.
   A citizen petition or successful vote of the Town Council can lead to the formation of a Charter Revision Commission to amend the Town Charter. The Town Council may accept all, none, or some of the recommendations of the Charter Revision Commission by a simple majority vote. If changes are accepted, a referendum vote at either a regular or special election would be held to adopt or reject proposed amendments to the Town Charter.