FARMINGTON —Voters in Regional School Unit 9 towns will head to the polls Tuesday to validate a proposed $32.97 million budget for the 2016-2017 year and decide whether or not to continue with a two-vote budget validation process in the future.
Polls will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. in Chesterville, Farmington, Industry, New Sharon, New Vineyard, Starks, Temple, Vienna and Wilton. In Weld, polls will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
In the first question, voters will be asked to validate the $32,973,180 budget that was given the first round of approval at the June 1 districtwide meeting.
A state-mandated second question on the RSU 9 referendum will ask voters if they would like to continue the process of a ballot referendum to grant the final approval on proposed budgets.
Every three years the district is required to ask voters whether or not they want to continue with the two-step approval process, according to RSU 9 Superintendent Tom Ward. If the question fails to pass, future budgets would only go to a districtwide meeting for approval.
The proposed budget on Tuesday’s ballot represents a 2.9 percent increase over the current year’s budget.
The proposed $32.97 million budget was approved in April after RSU 9 board of directors asked administrators to bring them budget requests that represented a maximum 3 percent increase.
While the budget represents an increase over last year, the budget includes additional revenue that the district will be receiving, which Ward said is being used to minimize the impact on local allocations. Four of the RSU 9’s 10 towns will see a decrease in their local allocations if the budget is approved.
If the budget is rejected by voters on Tuesday, the board of directors will have to start from scratch devising a new budget.
Voters initially rejected last year’s budget, and the board had to cut an additional $200,000 before a $32.04 million package was approved at a second districtwide meeting in July.
If the proposed budget is approved by voters Tuesday, the budget affects town contributions by an increase of $814 for Chesterville, a decrease of $14,636 for Farmington, an increase of $2,702 for Industry, a decrease of $9,014 for New Sharon, an increase of $11,508 for New Vineyard, an increase of $23,029 for Starks, a decrease of $10,283 for Temple, an increase of $6,787 for Vienna, an increase of $37,176 for Weld and a decrease of $74,891 for Wilton.
Lauren Abbate — 861-9252
Twitter: @Lauren_M_Abbate
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