| Joanne Cole |
A lightly attended Special Town Meeting came and went on Monday evening at Memorial School in what may have been record time. It took less than 20 minutes from start to finish, including the nomination and swearing in of Moderator Don Libby.
According to Deputy Clerk Nancy Campbell, 34 voters attended, a count that includes five Select Board members and the four-person NG Cable TV crew recording the meeting. By comparison, about 100 residents attended the Annual Town Meeting in May, 658 residents voted in the June Select Board and School Board election, and 3,169 residents cast votes in November 2022 when the LePage-Mills gubernatorial race, contested races for Maine Legislature, and New Gloucester’s Charter vote were on the ballot.
The 34 residents passed by wide margins the two substantive articles on the July 31 meeting warrant: one for $23,222 in departmental budget overruns, and the other using $500,000 from the Town’s surplus to reduce taxation.
Public Works and Transfer Station overdrafts. Voters were asked whether to use the Undesignated Fund Balance to cover $23,222 in departmental overdrafts from the FY21-22 budget: $19,788 in Public Works expenses and $3,434 for the Transfer Station.
No accompanying explanatory information was provided to voters, only barebones warrant articles, and resident Linda Chase wanted to know what the overdrafts were for. Public Works Director Ted Shane, who also oversees the Transfer Station, said Public Works’ $19,788 FY22 overage reflected increased costs during Covid, including for road salt. The Transfer Station expenses included extra maintenance costs to keep an old loader functioning and an overage on the recycling line item, which Shane said used to be $15,000, was cut to $10,000 and then cut to $5,000.
There was no suspense on the overdrafts article. It amounted to an after-the-fact authorization, with no practical alternative to passage, as speakers pointed out. Indeed, Manager Bill Kerbin noted, “The bills have been paid.”
But the process and timing—and the need to hold a special town meeting—came in for criticism, as did the prospect of similar overdrafts to come.
Resident Steve Libby, a member of the Budget Committee, thought an estimate of the FY22 overdrafts—$25,000, say—could and should have been presented to voters at the Annual Town Meeting in May, potentially obviating a special meeting. At the May meeting, voters declined to fill and pass two open-ended articles—without dollar amounts—for FY22 and FY23 overdrafts, which could have settled the matter without a subsequent special meeting.
Will there also be another overdraft in the FY22-23 budget, Libby asked Ted Shane. Yes, said Shane, his FY23 roads budget ran over by $19,788. That was roughly the amount cut from his budget request, he said, adding, “My estimate was pretty close.”
How about the current year, FY23-24, asked Karen Gilles, also a member of the Budget Committee. Had they upped Shane’s budget enough to avoid a similar overdraft issue in this fiscal year that’s just starting? Shane acknowledged the increase in his FY24 budget and said it should be fine “if we have a normal winter.”
The overdrafts article passed easily with what appeared to be a few protest votes.
$500,000 from Undesignated Fund Balance. The item that might have been expected to generate discussion was whether to take $500,000 from the Town’s Undesignated Fund Balance “to reduce the tax commitment,” as the warrant put it, or keep those funds in reserve. The $500,000 draw had been supported by both the Select Board and Budget Committee to soften the budget’s tax impact, but it was inadvertently omitted from the Annual Town Meeting warrant in May.
How much of a tax rate reduction will result if the $500,000 draw passes, Peter Bragdon asked. The mil rate for FY22-23 was $13.80. Bragdon wanted to know the mil rate “going into tonight”—that is, with the new FY23-24 budget as passed without the $500,000—and what it would be “after the $500,000.”
Manager Bill Kerbin said the town won’t know that “until after the commitment”—the Select Board sets the official tax rate later in August. Bragdon replied that a projected property valuation estimate is used throughout the budget-setting process and that the county and school numbers are now set, “so we should have a good idea where we’re at.” Neither Kerbin nor members of the Select Board ventured to estimate the new mil rate with or without the $500,000. The article passed easily.
Town Meeting is valued in part for its participatory exchange. This time, questions and comments from the floor were few, specific to the budget process, and came only from former members of the Select Board, perhaps understandable given the articles at issue.
For the rest of us, less conversant in the details, there was barely enough time to be confused. A motion to adjourn was made, seconded and passed seventeen minutes in. The Cable TV team, which had arrived at Memorial at 4 p.m. to prepare for the meeting’s 7 p.m. start, began to pack up.
View video of the July 31 Special Town Meeting at this link. The meeting warrant can be accessed at this link.
