Budgets pass easily in Webutuck and Millbrook, barely in Pine Plains

HARLEM VALLEY — All three budgets passed last week in the Webutuck, Pine Plains and Millbrook school districts. While district residents were overwhelming in their support of Webutuck’s proposal and Millbrook’s passed fairly easily, Pine Plains just barely scraped by with a majority.

Webutuck budget gets the most support

Webutuck’s budget, with an estimated tax levy increase of 2.67 percent resulting from a budget-to-budget decrease of 3.41 percent, passed with nearly 3.5 people voting in favor of the proposition for every person voting against.

Webutuck’s Board of Education seat race was the only hotly contested election in the area. Seven registered voters were competing for two full-terms and one partial term. Joanne Boyd led all candidates with 291 votes, followed by incumbent Bill McGhee with 261. Casey Swift finished in third place with 213 votes. Swift will immediately fill the year-long partial term, starting at the next Board of Education meeting; Boyd and McGhee will be sworn in at the regular reorganization meeting on July 1.

Pine Plains budget finds voters divided

Taxpayers in the Pine Plains Central School District were less in favor of a budget-to-budget increase of 1.68 percent, which was estimated to represent a 7.86-percent tax levy increase. The budget was approved by seven votes.

With only two registered candidates (both incumbents) vying for three open Board of Education seats, the Pine Plains write-in candidate race for the final seat ended up a close one. While JoAnn Wolfe and Heather Boucher both broke the 600 vote mark, write-in Todd Bowen clinched the third seat with only 40 votes.

In what appeared to be a case of bad luck mixed with strict write-in candidate rules, John Hoffman III received 34 votes while a John Hoffman (presumably the same person) received seven. Combined, that would have made Hoffman the winner by one (with 41 votes), but under the law, the name of a write-in candidate must be spelled exactly the same (and the distinction of Hoffman III must be clear) and subsequently the “two� candidates were counted as separate people.

Both Pine Plains and Webutuck passed second propositions for the purchase of school buses. In Webutuck, 16 percent fewer voters voted to approve the purchase than voted to approve the budget. But in Pine Plains it was about even, with approximately half a percent more voting for the bus purchases than the budget, despite the Pine Plains vehicle purchase equaling a full percent more compared to the school’s operating budget (roughly 1.4 percent) than in Webutuck
(about 0.4 percent).

Millbrook budget passes

More than 1,000 residents of the Millbrook School District turned out on May 18 to vote on the school budget and select four new members for the school board. The budget was approved by 598 voters and rejected by 413, clocking in with the usual historic 60 to 40 split. Three current school board candidates ran unopposed for re-election for new three-year terms on the seven-person board: Dawn Blackburn of Clinton Corners, Joseph Forte of Millbrook and Craig Wolff of Millbrook, who was first elected in July 1997. Tammy Powell, a district parent, was the successful write-in candidate with 96 votes to fill the fourth vacancy on the board.

The school district tax levy is estimated to increase taxes 4.92 percent next year. The school budget grew 3.1 percent to $24,998,395, an increase of about $742,000 from the previous year.  Although there will be three fewer teachers next year, superintendent Lloyd Jaeger promises there will be no increase in class size.