In one Connecticut town after another, voters are saying no and sending local budgets back to their leaders for more cuts. Yesterday, Bolton taxpayers said no to the 2008-09 budget for the third time in a month even though the margin of defeat was much smaller than previous attempts. Read story here.

From Killingly to Easton, from Goshen to Stonington—look anywhere in the state, and you will find budgets going down once, twice—who knows how many times before this difficult season comes to an end. In Farmington, after two defeats at referenda, the budget was passed by the town council under a charter provision that prohibits more than two public votes. Hopefully, no town will go through the double digit number of defeated budget referenda than Regional District 17 towns endured a decade ago, but the mood of taxpayers is such that nothing would surprise me.

In some cases, such as Killingly and Easton, the school proposals have been faring worse than general government. Faced with crises on the housing, gas and energy fronts, taxpayers can hardly be blamed for taking a dim view of any proposal that dips further into their pockets. But the reality is that budgets defeated once or twice have already undergone cuts—deep cuts in some cases, and towns and boards of education must cope with many of the same cost escalators as do their citizens.

The recently concluded session of the General Assembly certainly did little to help, and as understandable as that may be—whether you favor necessity of political expediency as the primary motive—towns and taxpayers are stuck between the proverbial rock and the hard place.

As June rolls on, we will find out if resolutions to current local stalemates can be found, or if 2008 will become one of the worst on record for local finances. However bad 2008 gets—2009 will likely be no better and may be worse—so let’s hope the message for legislators in November is a clear one. Come back prepared to help—or maybe don’t come back at all.