Town meeting, budget vote, set for June 9

SHARON — A special town meeting will be held at Town Hall on Tuesday, June 9, at 8 p.m. to vote on the town and school budgets for fiscal 2009-10.

This will be the second town meeting to discuss and vote on the proposed spending plan. Residents voted down the original proposal at a meeting in May.

At that first meeting, Selectman John Mathews made a motion for the budget vote to be split, with one vote for the municipal budget and another for the education budget. The vote itself was conducted by paper ballot.

Residents at the meeting approved Mathews’ motion, and while the town budget passed by a vote of 80 to 36, the school budget failed by a vote of 45 to 75.

Two weeks after the proposed budget was defeated, the Board of Education held a special meeting to determine additional cuts. The board eventually cut the proposed raises for non-certified staff members and Principal Karen Manning.

If residents approve this version of the budget, non-certified staff members such as administrative assistants, teacher aides and custodians who were originally slated to receive 3.5-percent raises will get 2.75-percent raises.

Manning, who was originally slated to receive a 4-percent raise, is now slated to receive a 2.25-percent raise.

The salary line item in the budget for teachers will increase by 5.87 percent. Teacher raises are contractual and can’t be reduced unless the teachers agree to do so. They were asked if they would, and told Region One Superintendent Patricia Chamberlain that they “respectfully declined� to make concessions.

The revised proposed 2009-10 budget for Sharon Center School is now $3,580,826, a $4,626 reduction from the previously proposed budget.

The proposed town budget remains the same: $2,685,622, a $54,951 or 2.1-percent increase from 2008-09. The budget calls for a 1-percent pay increase for all town employees except the selectmen, who voted not to accept any increase in their salaries.

At a special meeting of the Board of Selectmen on Friday, May 22, First Selectman Malcolm Brown said, since the last town meeting, he has heard many different opinions on the budget.

“I am aware that people in some quarters got really angry [after the vote] and others had their feelings hurt,� Brown said. “I think now it’s really time to think about coming together as a town, get our business in order, and get ready to get the town to run smoothly before July 1.�

In setting the date, Brown said that he knew not everybody would be happy with a Tuesday night meeting.

“On the other hand, some people aren’t happy with a Friday night meeting,� Brown said. “The reason we want to pick June 9 is because it is the ‘magic date’ that will give us the time that we need to get all the tax bills in order by July 1.�

Before the date was passed by the board, Selectman Mathews said that his only concern was the possibility of having the budget voted on by referendum.

Brown said he was not entirely sure what the process of bringing a budget to a referendum would be, but he believes that a budget can go to a referendum vote if a motion is made to do so at the town meeting and a majority of residents at the meeting approve it.

He said a referendum conducted by a voting machine would cost $1,400 at least, and would have to be held within two weeks after the town meeting.

All three selectmen said they were worried that a referendum vote would delay the town’s budget process even further.

“The cost is not the biggest thing, the time is,� Selectman Tom Bartram said. “Time is really the big issue.�

“If we’re talking about a monkey wrench in the time schedule, then this is an even bigger one,� Brown said.

The Board of Selectmen will hold their regular meeting, before the town meeting, at 5:30 p.m.