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67 Voters Pass Budget at Westbrook Town Meeting

At the May 15 Town Budget Meeting, the proposed $30,109,494 budget for town government and the Board of Education was adopted. In the midst of a severe thunderstorm, the Town Meeting at Westbrook High School attracted only 67 voters. The proposed budget for the town and Board of Education passed by a vote of 56 in favor to 11 votes against.

The budget, as proposed and adopted by the town’s electors, would increase spending by 1.4 percent or $408,745 over the current year.

After the vote tally was completed, the Board of Finance met to discuss the new mill rate. After deliberating, the BOF voted to keep next year’s mill rate the same as the current rate of 24.37 mills per thousand dollars of assessed property value.

Decisions over which capital projects to fund in the next fiscal year were deferred to a special joint meeting of the Boards of Selectmen and Finance was set for Wednesday, May 16 at 7 p.m. in the Town Hall Multi-media Room.

The Board of Selectmen had wanted to wait to decide how to allocate capital funds until after the state had passed a new budget. Town leaders were uncertain whether a new state budget would contain further unexpected cuts in state aid to towns, so the capital funds were left unallocated to provide a financial cushion against an adverse state budget.

As it turned out, however, the budget the State Legislature passed and that the governor signed will bring an additional $416,590 in state aid to Westbrook that was not anticipated during the budget development process.

The added state revenue coming to the town was a key factor contributing to the Board of Finance’s decision to keep the mill rate the same for next year.