Waldoboro voters cut $43,199 out of the municipal budget at a special town meeting on July 9 at Medomak Valley High School.
The special town meeting afforded an opportunity to re-address eight budget items that failed at the town meeting polls last month: the office of the town manager, the assessing department, the police department, the recreation department, planning and development, upkeep of the AD Gray building, employee benefits and authorization to exceed the state property tax limit.
The meeting lasted more than 5 hours. Although nearly 350 voters arrived and cast votes on early articles, by the end of the meeting only about 130 remained.
Every article received thorough attention and extensive debate, but in the end only the office of the town manager, employee benefits and the recreation department saw reductions to their budget.
After much debate about the relative merit of children’s activites, and Recreation Director Kyle Santheson’s workload, a motion to reduce the recreation department by more than $20,000 — about half their budget — failed. Then, in what may have been the most intriguing moment at the meeting, resident Scott Murray motioned to reduce the recreation department by $5000 — a 10 percent reduction, in line with what many residents called for from each department — with the assurance that the $5000 “will be taken care of.”
He declined to specify exactly where the money would come from, but said after the meeting that he and other residents will raise the money.
The office of the town manager’s budget was reduced by just over $7000. Town officials said that money will almost surely need to come out of the town manager’s salary, which would reduce it to $56,355. Many fear this could inhibit the town’s ability to find a qualified town manager.
Employee benefits were cut by $31,199, from a proposed total of $481,199. This will almost surely need to come from health insurance, because the other items in the benefits budget are legally required. It’s possible that the employee life insurance, which is part of Maine State Retirement, could be eliminated, but it was unlcear at the meeting whether this can be done.
Health insurance was proposed at $301,325. Reducing this figure by more than $30,000 will require more town employees paying into their health insurance plans, or some employees paying a higher percentage than they currently pay.
Although every article received at least one motion to reduce the budgeted amount, all other articles eventually passed as initially proposed.
