New Canaan’s legislative body on Thursday voted unanimously in favor of a $181 million budget for next fiscal year, a 3.47% increase over current spending.
The fiscal year 2026 spending plan includes a year-over-year increase of 4.36% for the Board of Education—a $150,000 reduction from the budget request that the school board had brought to the Town Council after going through New Canaan’s two other funding bodies, the Boards of Selectmen and Finance.
The final major discussion item in the budget was funding for the Board of Ed. The Town Council initially explored a $300,000 reduction to the school board’s spending request. Advocates to fully fund the request noted that two staff positions were on the line—an elementary school classroom coach and high school math interventionist.
Ultimately, the Town Council—Chair Michael Mauro, Vice Chair Hilary Ormond, Vice Chair/Secretary Cristina A. Ross and members Maria Naughton, Penny Young, Tom Butterworth, Rita Bettino, Luke Kaufman, Kimberly Norton, Janet Fonss, Eric Thunem and Jennifer Zonis—voted 12-0 in favor of the budget.
Addressing Mauro and referring to widely perceived last-minute budget reductions one year ago, Ormond praised the chair on “running a tight process this time and a transparent one, a very transparent one.”
“I commend all of us here for the conversations that we’ve had,” Ormond said at the April 3 Town Council meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. “I think it’s been great. It’s been such a great improvement. I want to thank the members of the public, all of whom have been super engaged. And all the emails and the testifying, which I know is really hard for a lot of people, has been really impactful.”
Ormond also thanked a teachers’ union rep for addressing the elected body.
“It’s rare that we have a representative from the teachers’ union here,” she said. “I think that was really important and appreciated. So I just want to thank you for your words, and obviously to our great administration and teachers and the schools, all of our departments. It was a really good thorough process this year and I want to thank everyone for that.”
The budget includes town department operational expenses of $34.9 million (up 3.25%).
“Other budget items include a combined Town and Board of Education debt service of $18.38 million (down 2.80%) and tax-funded capital projects of $0.47 million (up 22.94%),” the town said in a press release. “To fund this budget, the amount to be raised from taxation is $164.79 (up 4.24%).”
The Board of Education is expected to discuss plans following the final budget approval at its regular meeting Monday night. The Board of Finance will continue to monitor any final financial assumptions as the current fiscal year ends in June. At that time, it will set the new mill rate and adopt a final 2025-2026 budget.
Mauro said at the close of the final budget meeting that “So much of life is perspective.”
“Especially as you’re getting older, you really understand how important perspective is in any facet or aspect of your life,” he said. “Relationships with your parents, your kids, your friends, coworkers, you name it. So in that score my wife and I took our kids to Vietnam a couple of weeks ago, over the last break. I’ve never been to a communist country before. I’ve been to countries that are destitute and poor. But it was striking what I saw in terms of traveling between some cities. It’s rice fields and jungles. And when you go through the totally undeveloped area to like what you would consider a developed city, you see how they live. And when I say, we’re corrugated little rooms.”
Some families that he saw were living in rudimentary lean-to shelters, “with a fireplace and that’s it,” he said.
“My kids were in the backseat and they’re flipping around on their phones for the hour driving. I’m like, ‘Put those things down. I’m like, listen, look outside.’ And we had a driver with us and I said, ‘See these children, how they’re living right now?’ I said, ‘They’re literally living in lean-tos.’ ”
Mauro said he asked their driver when the kids to school, and that driver told them it depends if their parents have any money. And I said, really? And he said, these kids, they don’t go to school. He said, it’s over before it began for them. They come out of the womb and pretty much, that’s their life” They’ll make a small living in these little fishing villages and that’s it. Spotty electricity and all that stuff. So my point is, I explained to the kids, I said, ‘There’s no Bill of Rights here.’ I said, ‘They don’t have a right to go to school. Maybe their parents, if they have some ability, can go to school. But this is it for them. Maybe they’ll get work in a factory. There’s a lot of factory work rising in Vietnam as a big trading partner.’ We’ll put the tariff discussion aside. But the point is that I said to the kids, ‘Look how you live.’ ”
Despite the issues that the United States is facing, there’s “opportunity” here, Mauro said.
“You can go as far as you take yourself in this country,” he said. “Yes, there’s always going to be challenges, but you can rise from nothing because you have access to a fantastic public school system. You have safe streets, you have running water, fantastic utilities. If you have mental health problems, you have the ability to get services in this town. You have a fantastic library to go to. Explaining to the children, you have to understand what you have access to here, because most people lose sight of that. And I think at some level, it resonated with them. So I wanted to bring that story to your attention because it reinforced in my mind how incredible, one, this country is, but this town is, and all of us who do dedicate our time, whether we’re being paid or not. It doesn’t matter, the caliber and the dedication of the people that bring all of this together. Like I said, the schools, police, fire, on down the line. It’s extraordinary, and I’m always blown away by the people who come to speak to us and we learn about their backgrounds, the level of talent and commitment that exists in this town.”
Mauro commended the leadership in New Canaan, starting with First Selectman Dionna Carlson and “all on down the line.”
“The Board of Ed, everybody,” he said. “Thoughtful people who only want the best for the town. I said it earlier. We may have different ways to get to the point, but we all want to get to the same point. We all do act in good faith. On this panel. I’ve said it before, we get along. Tom and I can battle a little bit, but I only wish the best for him and everything in his life. I really and along with all of you. So we all come here in good faith. We can battle it out, but we only want the best. And that goes, I see on all of the other boards and commissions and it’s. It’s humbling. The diligence, the thoughtfulness that we all engage in, especially on the Town Council after this budget season.”
Mauro called this Town Council “the most informed” he’s seen going into a budget season.
“I want to thank the taxpayers who fund the whole shebang here,” Mauro said. “They’re footing the bill for all of us. And they need to understand how truly talented and dedicated everyone who’s sitting in this room and all of the other department heads, they’re really getting an extraordinary value for their dollar. They really are. And they need to understand, we’re excellent stewards of their money. This budget funds our operations and capital. It’s giving us top-performing schools, safe streets, superior infrastructure, strong social services. We’re continuing to help the library be the shining star, the continued rising star of this community. And I think we’re all proud of that. The public has been heard. I love when the public comes to speak to us, and whether I’m agreeing with what they’re saying or not, it doesn’t make a difference. They’ve taken the time to say, ‘Hey, you need to hear my voice, because I’m a taxpayer,’ whether it be in email, whether it be in, in person here, or if I’m on the street or wherever I am, we need to hear. In our personal interactions back and forth and with other boards and commissions, our discussions are never easy.”