Windham’s annual town meeting will be held on Saturday, June 17, at the Windham High School Auditorium starting at 10 a.m.
This is an opportunity for Windham residents to check in on town business and ask questions about budgetary decisions made by town and school district officials for upcoming fiscal year 2006-2007.
The town warrant, a list of budget questions posed to voters, directs the Town Meeting by tackling the issues one at a time. A Town Meeting moderator will then ask voters in attendance to vote ‘Yea’ or ‘Nay’ on each warrant article.
The major articles of this warrant deal with town and school district expenses.
In Article 8, voters will be asked to approve using $650,000 out of town savings to reduce the property tax burden and pay for ongoing renovations at the Windham Town Offices off Route 202. Out of this sum, $200,000 will go toward renovation of town office space, $350,000 will go to reduce general taxes and $100,000 will be carried to the next fiscal year in contingency.
The $350,000 “is an amount we’ve been carrying for the past few years,” said Town Manager Anthony Plante. “It’s a way of catching up with revenue surpluses. It’s healthy for the town to use some surplus without causing a hiccup in our cash flow.”
In Article 9, voters will be asked to approve a $13.91 million town budget. This is roughly a 4 percent increase in town expenses, but – off-set by the money out of town savings – reflects only a 1 to 2 percent rise in property tax contribution.
What this means for taxpayers when they finally open up their tax bills this fall is yet to be seen. Windham is now wrapping up a revaluation of property values townwide that will change the tax rate for all residents and businesses.
Town Assessor David Sawyer has said previously that the mill rate is expected to drop from $17.80 to $12 per thousand of property value. That means for a $200,000 home, the resident can expect to pay $2,400 in property taxes.
If voters deny Article 9, they will be asked to vote on each town department budget.
Articles 21 through 24 deal with the school district budget.
The school district is asking voters to approve a $28.22 million budget. This reflects a 6 percent rise in expenses, but the local tax contribution will remain the same and will not affect the tax rate, thanks to an additional $1.46 million in state aid for local education.
Voters will also be asked to exceed the state’s required level of education costs by about $363,000. The money pays for programs and services not addressed by the state’s assessment of educational needs, according to school officials.
This $363,000 is already factored into the overall school budget and will also not affect the tax rate.
Article 25 asks voters to put aside $300,000 from school surplus into a Capital Reserve Fund. This money will be used toward the upkeep of the $60 million worth of school facilities in Windham. In past years, the capital maintenance budget has been dipped into to pay for operating expenses whenever the school district falls under budget constraints.
“It’s an opportunity to ensure that we have money for maintenance projects within the district,” said School Superintendent Sandy Prince. “We have a 10-year capital plan that encompasses over $2 million worth of maintenance work. Through a Capital Reserve Fund, we begin to support the plan and chop away at some of those projects.”
This $300,000 comes directly from a two-year school surplus of $1 million discovered last summer. An additional $300,000 of this money has also been applied to reduce taxpayers’ share of local education costs.
Last year, less than one percent of Windham voters participated in the annual town meeting. While all votes at Town Meeting are declared through a show of hands, voters are given a chance to speak before each vote and ask questions of town and school officials.
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