(Editor’s note: The warrant for the annual town meeting contains incorrect totals for four of the six budget articles. For correct totals, click here.)
Newcastle voters will decide whether to authorize the selectmen to open a $1 million line of credit for repairs to Academy Hill and North Newcastle roads during annual town meeting Monday, June 18.
The 23-article warrant includes several articles that make up the $1,365,699.29 municipal budget, a decrease of $35,045.66 or 2.5 percent from the previous year.
The “roads capital projects” line of the reserves budget includes $27,000 to cover interest on the line of credit, which the town would use to repair Academy Hill Road and North Newcastle Road within the next two years.
A separate article on the warrant would authorize the selectmen to open the line of credit.
In other areas of the budget, the computer reserve line includes $1,500 for the purchase of a 75- to 90-inch flat-screen TV and stand for the community room at the fire station. The town would use the screen for presentations and for trainings by the fire department.
Department budgets include the following: the $490,463.65 public works budget, an increase of $45,788.70 or 10.3 percent; administration operations, $374,868.42, up $32,795.42 or 9.6 percent; public safety, $201,249.22, up $1,623.22 or 0.8 percent; reserves, $155,850, up $45,900 or 41.7 percent; and public services, $116,184, up $4,847 or 4.35 percent.
The budget for debt service, $27,084, is a decrease of $166,000 or 86 percent. The town paid off a roadwork loan in the 2017-2018 fiscal year, resulting in the decrease.
The municipal budget combined with the county tax and the education budgets, which have already been approved, totals $4,914,025.59, a decrease of $22,174.06 or 0.4 percent.
The $391,150 county tax budget is an increase of 7,669.78 or 2 percent.
The town expects to receive $718,671 in non-property tax revenue, so it will raise $4,195,354.59 from property taxes, a decrease of $154,633.06 or 3.6 percent.
Voters will continue to use electronic keypads at the town meeting, as they have for several years.
The town meeting will take place at the Lincoln Academy Alumni Dining Commons at 7 p.m., Monday, June 18.
