At Windham’s annual town meeting held June 17 in the Windham High School auditorium, town officials and a small group of voters formally approved the town and school budgets for upcoming fiscal year 2006-2007 starting July 1.
These budgets total $42 million with $28.1 million for local education and $13.9 million for town government and services.
Though only 78 voters attended the meeting, town officials did not escape the perennial interrogation from former town councilor Gordon Browne, a staunch critic of government spending, who questioned the need for an increase in school and town expenses and the use of savings from town treasury to pay for these expenses.
The meeting began with recognition of town councilors Robert Muir and Elizabeth Wisecup and school board members Kate Brix and Michael Duffy for their ongoing work.
Local state legislators also honored the late Winfred Strout for his service to the community.
Moderator Tom Bartell presided over the meeting as a crowd of town employees, school faculty, political watchdogs and concerned citizens voted for and against budget articles by holding green voting slips up in the air.
When Bartell asked the voters if they approved of using $650,000 from town savings to help pay for town expenses, Brown made his first inquiry at the podium.
“If you had not taken the $650,000 out of surplus, what would the effect on the tax rate be?” Brown asked.
Council Chairman Robert Muir noted that, without the money from town savings, there would be an increase of about 65 cents per thousand on the town tax rate.
But with the $650,000 included, there is still a rise of 2 percent rise in taxpayers’ share of costs. What effect this will have on the tax rate won’t be known until Windham’s current revaluation of property values is complete, Muir added.
School Board Chairman Michael Duffy presented the $28.1 million school budget to the audience and noted that, thanks to an increase in state aid, there will be no effect on the taxpayers’ share of education costs.
“The total dollar amount requested from the taxpayers is the same as last year,” Duffy said.
But Brown once again spoke out to criticize a 6 percent rise in school spending when the student population in Windham has only grown 2 percent.
Because of this rise in expenses, voters in attendance had to decide by secret ballot whether to approve $362,000 above the state-recommended level of education costs.
Before the voters lined up for the secret ballot, moderator Bartell explained that a majority “no” vote did not mean that the school would not receive the money, it only meant that the voters would have to resolve on a different number.
“We need to work through this article until it passes,” Bartell said.
Duffy explained that the state’s new education expense formula calculates local costs for education, but does not address the cost of advanced courses nor the full expense of sports and fine arts programs.
In the end, Windham’s first secret ballot proved in favor of the additional $362,000 by a vote of 48 yes and 21 no as councilors, school board members and voters in attendance wrote their answers on a slip of paper and cast them in a ballot box.
Voters also approved putting aside $300,000 in a Capital Reserve Fund to pay for future maintenance of school facilities.
This money came from a two-year surplus discovered last summer that totaled more than $1 million. Another $272,000 of this surplus money was put toward school expenses to keep local taxes flat.
While disappointed by the small turnout at town meeting, councilor Muir said he would rather a small crowd vote on the budgets than give the Town Council full legislative power to approve the budgets as is done in other towns.
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