Date: Fri 09-Apr-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: STEVEB

Quick Words:

budget-council-school-library

Full Text:

Schools Get Money Back, But The Library Doesn't

BY STEVE BIGHAM

The Legislative Council voted unanimously Monday night to restore $80,000 to

the Board of Education's proposed budget. At the same time, it refused to

restore the $20,000 to the library budget despite pleas from library

supporters.

For the second year in a row, council member Ed Lucas requested that the

school board budget be re-opened. This time, his motion passed, as did his

proposal to restore some money to the school accounts.

"I wanted to bring what we put back up to $250,000. This will hopefully allow

the school board to hire the new teachers they had planned for," he said.

The council had originally cut about $1 million from the proposed $3.3 million

school board increase (10.41 percent). It restored $173,000 two weeks ago

after realizing the town's anticipated tax increase was not as high as first

thought.

The new figure of $34.7 million still represents an 8.7 percent increase over

the current school spending.

The total budget package for the town was approved at $62.1 million to be

voted on by the taxpayers at an April 27 referendum. The proposed budget

increases the tax rate by one mill from 26.9 mills to 27.9 mills. Council

member Melissa Pilchard wanted to re-open the library budget, but was unable

to since she voted against the original $20,000 cut. She urged others to do it

for her, but no one responded.