JAY – The Regional School Unit 73 school board approved setting a new date for its budget referendum vote, after learning that figures accompanying the warrant were incorrect.
The RSU 73 budget vote will take place on Aug. 18 instead of July 14. A public hearing to provide information on the budget, similar to the one held last month, will be held on Aug. 4.
The error was made by the district’s lawyers on the warrant, relating to the amount of money each town would have been assessed. School officials caught the issue last week and had the town offices stop handing out absentee ballots. On Tuesday, the board moved to rescind the previously-issued warrant and ballots and reissue new ones for the Aug. 18 vote.
The board’s action only impacts absentee ballots in Jay, Livermore and Livermore Falls cast in relation to the RSU 73 budget; not any absentee ballots cast for the municipal or state votes scheduled for July 14.
The district’s law firm, Drummond Woodsum, will pay any extra costs associated with the change, Superintendent Scott Albert said Tuesday evening. They also reimbursed RSU 73 for the expenses relating to their work on the budget, he added.
Albert said that the district could operate into the next fiscal year using last year’s budget, until a budget could be formally set.
The $20,160,842 proposed budget for K-12 students would represent an increase of roughly $593,000 over the current fiscal year, or 3.03 percent.
In other business, the board approved a one-year contract extension with Bailey Bros. to maintain the district’s buses, running through June 30, 2021.
So what happens to the ballot we submitted with our absentee ballots for the 17th?
Some of this was covered in the article above, but Jay Town Manager Shiloh LaFreniere sent this Wednesday morning:
RSU 73 Board of Directors rescinded the July 14th budget referendum due to an error on the documents that were being voted on. A new budget hearing was set for August 4th with a new referendum vote on August 18th. For those citizens that have already voted on the school budget via absentee voting, we will be voiding the school ballots when we process the absentee ballots. In order to vote on the school budget you will need to request a new absentee ballot or vote at the polls on August 18th. If you have voted absentee, your municipal and state ballots WILL BE VALID and will be counted. Starting July 15th we will have absentee ballots available for the new school budget vote.
I wonder if RSU9 uses the same firm? I’m sure it does. If this happens in #73, couldn’t it happen in #9?
Nancy almost every school district in Maine use these people and yes they represent RSU9 unfortunately.