2009-10 town budget passes

SALISBURY — One of the most difficult budget seasons in recent memory finished with the much-amended 2009-10 budget passing by a vote of 97-27 at a town meeting Thursday, May 21.

The general government budget is $4,779,500 (up $23,609, or .50 percent). The Salisbury Central School budget is $4,604,453 (up $26,776, or .58 percent).

The Region One assessment, passed by referendum May 5, is $3,040,399 (an increase of $138,430, or 4.77 percent).

The total town budget is $12,424,352, which is an increase of $188,815 or 1.54 percent over last year.

Moderator Charles Vail took questions and comments from the audience for about 70 minutes.

The discussion was spirited, with many parents in the audience taking issue with the Board of Education’s decision not to hire a replacement teacher. One woman took Chairman Roger Rawlings to task for calling a $60,000 cut “better� than a $40,000 cut and accused the Board of Finance of “providing cover� for Rawlings.

Rawlings explained that a $40,000 cut translated into laying off three paraprofessionals, while a $60,000 cut meant simply not hiring a replacement for a teacher in the middle school who is leaving.

Board of Finance member Don Mayland said the impetus for the additional cuts requested by the Board of Finance after the April public hearing came from his board. “Roger Rawlings never walked in with any kind of predetermined plot.

“A key concern was that nobody lose a job,� he continued, speaking with some force. “The position we took was that $60,000 was roughly what it would cost to hire a new teacher.�

Other citizens took the opportunity to make largely rhetorical points. One advocated cutting town aid to nonprofits such as the Scoville Library as a way to make up the education shortfall — a notion that brought immediate protests from others in the room and the observation from First Selectman Curtis Rand that all the nonprofits that receive town funds got a zero-percent increase.

Mike Flint, videotaping the meeting for local access cable television, asked about the missing $110,000 from the school and Board of Education accounts.

“Is that just gone?� he asked.

Rawlings said that former board clerk Lori Tompkins, charged with embezzling the money, is awaiting trial and his ability to comment was limited, but acknowledged that he had heard no mention of restitution from anyone involved in the case.

A plea for unity

Len Stewart made a plea for unity. “I think the three boards have done very well. They have practiced budgetary restraint at this very difficult time. We’re all neighbors and we’re all in this together.�

The budget question was moved to a vote, which was done by paper ballot.

While the ballots were counted the remaining ballot questions, routine matters authorizing the town government to function, passed quickly.

A “sense of the meeting� poll was conducted after the meeting adjourned. Finance Chairman Bill Willis said in a phone interview Friday morning that the board had originally planned to conduct such a poll only if the budget failed, but decided it would be useful information to have.

The questions, again on slips of paper, asked voters to check one of three options for each budget component: Too high, too low or acceptable.

Willis said the tabulation of the unofficial poll was that four voters thought the selectmen’s budget was too high, eight thought it was too low, and 77 found it acceptable (total 89).

On the education side, 13 believed the budget to be too high, 35 too low, and 44 acceptable (total 92).

The Board of Finance met immediately after the town meeting and, as expected, set the mill rate for 2009-10 at 9.3, an increase of 2.2 percent that means a property tax increase of $21 per $100,000 of assessed value.

For an average assessment of $400,000, the tax increase is $84.