You asked if
law allows voters to hold a referendum to rescind a prior referendum that
approved a municipal budget. You also wanted to know if Windsor’s charter authorizes such actions.
The Office of Legislative Research cannot give legal opinions and you should
not regard this report as one.
The statutes
do not appear to authorize referenda to rescind prior ones approving municipal
budgets. Instead, they specify the procedures towns must follow when holding a
referendum the law authorizes (CGS §§ 9-369—9-371a).
Nor does Windsor’s charter
authorize referenda to rescind previously approved budgets. It requires the
town council to submit its recommended budget to the voters at an “adjourned
town meeting” and, if the voters reject it, to adjust and resubmit the budget
to them until they approve it (Charter of the Town of Windsor, §9-1(a))
and 9-3(b)). But it does not authorize a subsequent referendum after voters
approved the budget.
Nor can
voters achieve this end by petitioning for a special meeting, since the charter
allows them only for explicitly stated purposes (§9-1(b)). For example, the
charter specifically authorizes town meetings to enact ordinances (§9-5(a)) or
to overrule specified council actions, which do not include the adoption of the
budget (§9-4).