JAY – By a narrow vote of 306 to 293, residents of the Regional School Unit 73 towns of Jay, Livermore and Livermore Falls approved the 2016-17 budget totaling $18.8 million on Tuesday.
The yes/no question referendum asked voters if they approved of the budget set at the April 7 district-wide meeting. At the meeting, voters approved a $18,799,714.99 budget for the 2016-17 fiscal year without much discussion.
At the polls on Tuesday, the majority in Livermore by six votes and Livermore Falls by two votes were opposed to validating the budget. By 21 votes, Jay approved validating the budget meeting total, which was enough to confirm the action taken at the budget meeting.
The overall budget was lower by $233,051 in expenditures from the current fiscal year, although the current fiscal year’s budget does include one-time expenditures of $336,000 for the Griffin Field bleachers and the installation of the elevator at Spruce Mountain High School. Removing those costs would have equated to an increase of $149,948.
The budget includes a reduction of five positions, plus an additional $164,000 removed from fuel lines. Those cuts helped absorb contracted salary and benefit increases, as well as a $190,000 decrease in state subsidy.
Directors increased the funding taken from the undesignated account by $100,000 to a $421,000 total, to help counter the budget’s impact in the tax base to the three towns of the school district.
The budget shows an overall reduction of $419,000 in total local revenue from all three towns, down to approximately $12 million.
Jay voted 217 yes, 196 no; Livermore voted 52 yes, 58 no; and Livermore Falls voted 37 yes and 39 no.
Thank you, voters of Jay, Livermore and Livermore Falls for voting to support education!
Nice, two towns reject it and one of three towns accepts it by only 21 votes. Disgusting. Yes, rules are rules and I guess it should pass, but maybe the rules should be changed for a higher percentage of acceptance. Let’s see where the economy goes this year (bad) and see how people feel next year.
Maybe, Pinetree, there needs to be a better turnout to show different results. Look at the number from the town that did pass it. The other two towns didn’t even add up to the total.