About 45 Washington residents at Town Meeting on Saturday at Prescott Memorial School approved a 3.7 percent jump in municipal spending.
Municipal spending was set at $1,114,601, an increase of $40,545 — or 3.7 percent — from the current budget year’s $1,074,056.
Town Clerk Mary Anderson said the meeting lasted a little over three hours. Despite the length of the meeting, she said, there was no controversy, just healthy discussion. Voters approved 36 of 37 articles, defeating a proposed change to the town’s Mining Ordinance.
The town is anticipating $408,172 in nonproperty tax revenue, $29,953 — or 7.3 percent — less than the current fiscal year’s anticipated revenue of $438,125. Other revenue will be carried over from other town accounts in the amount of $52,000, up $36,000 from last year’s $16,000.
The biggest jump on a single budget line is a $17,000 increase for maintenance of town roads. Most other budget lines show a small increase.
The town plans to appropriate $624,477 from taxes this year after revenue, a $34,498 — or 5.8 percent — increase from last year’s $589,979.
A change to the town’s gravel mining ordinance was shot down by residents because of concerns about the vague definition of “mining” in the ordinance. Officials will go back to work on the ordinance and clear up the definition of mining to be more gravel-specific, according to Anderson.
In Friday’s elections, Selectman Wesley Daniel, who was running unopposed, was re-elected. On the floor Saturday, Jesse Casas, Debbie de Groff, Donald Grinnell, David Martucci, Walter Metcalf, Kathleen Ocean and David Williams were elected to the Budget Committee. Wendy Carr and Peg Hobbs were elected as the committee’s alternates.
Sam Shepherd — 621-5666
Twitter: @SamShepME
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