FARMINGTON – The $33.9 million budget approved by voters at the July 25 budget meeting was rejected at Thursday evening’s validation referendum, effectively restarting the budget process for the second time.
The preliminary, unofficial results, with all 10 towns reporting, indicate that the voters rejected the budget by a total of 139 votes: with 1,290 votes in favor and 1,429 opposed to validating the budget. That represents a slight narrowing of the June 13 vote, 139 votes compared to 184 votes, but not nearly enough to pass the $33.9 million budget.
Unofficial town-by-town results:
Chesterville – 55 yes and 172 no
Farmington – 555 yes and 442 no
Industry – 54 yes and 71 no
New Sharon – 95 yes and 204 no
New Vineyard – 25 yes and 90 no
Starks – 111 yes and 23 no
Temple – 50 yes and 69 no
Vienna – 51 yes and 40 no
Weld – 32 yes and 38 no
Wilton – 262 yes and 280 no
Current total – 1,290 yes and 1,429 no
That budget, which represented a $1.18 million increase over the previous fiscal year, would have resulted in a total tax assessment increase of $24,970, spread across all 10 towns. The process now restarts with the directors proposing a new budget, which will proceed to a new budget meeting and validation vote.
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[Editor’s Note: Clerks from New Sharon have confirmed that the town’s results were reported to newspapers incorrectly; they were inverted (from the correct 204 no and 95 yes to the incorrect 95 no and 204 yes). That error has been corrected below]
FARMINGTON – Mt. Blue Regional School District is holding its validation vote for the 2017-18 budget today in all 10 towns. Polls will close for most towns at 6, 7 or 8 p.m. tonight.
Temple, however, runs its polls from 7 a.m. until 12 p.m. Preliminary, unofficial results indicate that voters there rejected the new, $33.9 million budget with 50 votes in favor and 69 votes opposed.
Other towns, now reporting unofficial, preliminary results this evening, include Chesterville, Farmington, Industry, New Sharon, New Vineyard, Starks, Vienna, Wilton and Weld.
Results will be posted, as they come in, here:
Chesterville – 55 yes and 172 no
Farmington – 555 yes and 442 no
Industry – 54 yes and 71 no
New Sharon – 95 yes and 204 no
New Vineyard – 25 yes and 90 no
Starks – 111 yes and 23 no
Temple – 50 yes and 69 no
Vienna – 51 yes and 40 no
Weld – 32 yes and 38 no
Wilton – 262 yes and 280 no
Current total – 1,290 yes and 1,429 no
More details on the budget approved at the July 25 meeting can be found here.
The initial validation vote, held on June 13, resulted in the budget being defeated with 1,457 votes cast in favor and 1,641 votes cast in opposition. Those results can be see here:
Town-by-town results for the validation vote:
Weld – 34 yes and 52 no
Temple – 65 yes and 75 no
Chesterville – 61 yes and 183 no
Starks – 84 yes and 19 no
Industry – 65 yes and 89 no
Farmington – 644 yes and 501 no
New Vineyard – 31 yes and 109 no
New Sharon – 139 yes and 207 no
Vienna – 61 yes and 57 no
Wilton – 273 yes and 349 no
