While a large portion of the Town of Windsor budget supports the education of our children, the Town of Windsor also provides many other services to its citizens. Some of these include visible things such as:
- Windsor Public Library
- Windsor Senior Center
- Parks and Athletic Fields
- Road Maintenance
- Snow Plowing
- Police and Fire Departments
- Activities through the Recreation Department
- Citizen Workshops to Engage and Inform Windsor Residents
- Win-TV 5 & 96: including town meetings, events, and local programming
There are also less visible but very valuable services provided:
- Development Services:
- Building Department: performs safety inspections for buildings
- Economic Development: works to support existing businesses and attract new businesses
- Health Services:
- Performs food safety inspections
- Runs clinics for flue shots, cholesterol and blood pressure screenings
- Coordinates the Emergency Operations Center
- Social Services: provides casework and supports basic needs for our most vulnerable citizens
Just as things like food, gas, electricity, and insurance cost more for individuals, prices for these items as well as things such as asphalt, vehicle maintenance, employee contractual costs and magnet school tuition increase for the town. The Town Manager and department heads work diligently to spend taxpayer money wisely and actively seek ways to reduce costs.
Recently the Town of Windsor has been working to save taxpayer's money by:
- Implemented self-insured health insurance program for town employees saving approximately $480,000
- Negotiated contractual changes with employee unions to mitigate increasing costs of employee and retiree health insurance and pensions
- Instituted a 401a defined contribution plan for new town employees to save on long-term pension costs
- Maintaining AAA bond rating with Standard & Poor, AA1 rating with Moody's
- Rapid reduction of debt; 93% of general debt retired in 10 years (benchmark is 70%)
- Annual debt service maintained at 6% of operating budget (benchmark is 6-8%)
- Annual financial audit performed by independent auditor
- Contracted to increase collection of delinquent property tax accounts
- Actively seeks out and applies for available state and federal grant programs such as:
- Prospect Hill Reconstruction
- Fleet Vehicle Replacement
- Community Development Block Grant
- Historic Document Preservation Grant
- Large percentage of general property tax is paid by businesses (40% which is much higher than surrounding towns due to good foresight and planning over the previous years)
Click Here to visit the town website for more information on "What Windsor has done to stay ahead of the down economy."
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