TIVERTON — There’s just one budget on the Financial Town Referendum ballot this month but the process for approving a new fiscal year budget will cost about the same, or even a bit more than the usual $12,000 because of the additional cost of mail ballots and postage.
The polls still have to be open – three days in advance of the FTR and the day of the FTR on Sept. 26 – even though voters will not have a choice this year except to approve the $53.5 million fiscal 2021 budget that level funds the school department and library, has no new capital spending, and takes $1.6 million from the town’s unrestricted General Fund to offset taxes.
That budget was recommended by the majority of the 11-member Budget Committee. No other budgets were submitted for inclusion on the referendum ballot that allows voters to approve a new budget and answer yes or no to resolutions, most of which restrict accounts.
“It doesn’t matter whether there’s one budget or five budgets. The big cost driver is the poll workers, three days before and the day of the election,” Town Clerk Nancy Mello said. “It may be a little more this year because we have to pay for the mail ballots and the postage. People are now more comfortable mail ballot voting.”
A virtual hearing on the fiscal 2021 budget was held Thursday night and had a handful of spectators, most of them town officials, Town Administrator Christopher Cotta said as he kept an eye out for requests to speak or ask a question by those watching.
No questions came from the audience. The toll-free number to get into the meeting to comment was announced at least twice during the meeting.
“It can’t be this easy,” commented Budget Committee Chairman Jay Edwards after he had reviewed the budget at the start of the 45-minute meeting.
Edwards said it was “a very difficult budget year” because the town had lost “significant revenue” he said referring to the casino revenue that didn’t materialize as expected, and business closings that will affect revenue streams this coming year. He said the meetings that were held over many months were “mostly civil.”
Both the town and the school department are hoping there will be aid sent from the federal and state governments for COVID-19 related expenses.
School Committee Chairman Jerome Larkin said it has been “an extraordinary year” adding that the school budget “has some stark uncomfortable numbers in it.” He said they had to lay off the equivalent of 22 full time employees. “But we will open and there will be teachers and students and we will continue to educate,” he said.
“Through all of this difficulty the level of civility and willingness to dialogue was remarkable,” said Larkin.
“None of us are happy with this,” Council Vice President Denise deMedeiros said of the final budget and cuts that had to be made. “We did the best we could to not increase taxes. None of us are happy with the decisions, but we had to do it this year.”
“It will be a very, very tight year,” said Cotta.
The municipal budget was decreased by 2.63%, the school budget had a 0.74% increase, capital spending decreased by 83.3$ compared to fiscal year 2020, Edwards said.
The new budget will necessitate a tax rate increase of 41 cents, to $16.20 per $1,000 valuation. The average home valued at $306,000 will see a $126 tax increase for fiscal year 2021.
Tax bills for the second quarter are expected to be mailed by mid-October.
The budget for the first quarter of the new fiscal year that began July 1 was the same as fiscal 2020. A new budget is usually approved prior to July 1 but the town wanted to hold off for a few months to be able to use more concrete aid numbers from the state, but the state has yet to pass a new fiscal year budget.
