FARMINGTON – Residents overwhelmingly endorsed a $23.6 million school budget for the next fiscal year at a public meeting Tuesday evening. A referendum vote, scheduled for May 27, will be required in order to approve the budget.
With little debate, roughly 70 voters approved 17 state-mandated articles, many of them unanimously.
The budget was set at $23,654,291. The proposed 2009-2010 budget proposal represents a $307,575 decrease from the current budget, or a savings of 1.28 percent.
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The state’s allocation, as determined through the Essential Programs and Services model, is decreasing by 3.88 percent, going from $14.5 million down to $13.9 million. The local assessment is decreasing as well, going from $8.88 million down to $8.51 million, a decrease of 4.25 percent. These decreases in both state and local funding are partially offset by $372,456 in federal funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Eight residents did request that Article 6, which deals with the funding raised for district, board and technology administration, be a written ballot. Moderator Paul Mills noted that the rules of order required 10 percent of the voters to be in favor of a written ballot in order to proceed, and that the eight votes was enough.
That article still passed easily, by a vote of 56 in favor and 12 opposed. Written ballots were also cast for Article 14, which asked for $1.02 million to be raised in excess of the state’s Essential Programs and Services model, as mandated by state law. That article also passed, by a vote of 64 to 2.
The outcome of the meeting will need to be ratified through a referendum vote on May 27, with polls opening in each town. A single question will appear on the ballot, asking voters if they approve of the actions taken at the budget meeting or not.
Approval will ratify the budget for the 2009-2010 fiscal year. If the vote fails to pass, a new budget would be created by the board and require approval at a new budget meeting.
