Community Corner

East Hampton Voters Reject Budget

Board of finance to hold special meeting next Tuesday.

 

For the fourth time in seven years, East Hampton residents have rejected the proposed budget on the first try.

In a referendum held on Tuesday, residents voted 1,054 to 777 against a .60 mill rate increase.

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The Fiscal Year 2012-13 budget called for $38,694,730 in overall spending, an increase of $930,430 or 2.46 percent. The board of education would have received $26,938,340, an increase of $726,338 or 2.77 percent. As a result, the mill rate would have increased to 26.28.

"I'm disappointed and it's back to the drawing board," Board of Finance Chair Matt Walton said.

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Where the cuts will come from is anybody's guess. The budget had previously been characterized as lean at board of finance meetings.

"It's totally up to the board," Walton said of where potential cuts can be made. "I'm sure we're going to have a lot of discussions and we'll probably look at cutting some things from town government."

The board of finance will make those cuts it deems necessary before passing the budget on to the town council.

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Acting Town Manager and Finance Director Jeff Jylkka said he imagines "everything is going to get looked at, all departments."

"We have our work cut out for us," he said.

Walton said he had spoken to some residents during the day and said there were comments against education and comments against town government.

What Walton wants to see is more feedback from residents, a consistent lament this year and years past. Though voter turnout was about 22 percent, a decent number for a budget referendum, few residents attended town meetings to comment on the budget.

"What I'm hoping for is to get more input from the public, to see if we can't get some direction where they would like to see the budget cut," he said.

A special board of finance meeting has been tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, May 15, at 6:30 p.m. at the middle school. Jylkka said the town would shoot for a June 5th referendum.

"The margin that [the budget] was defeated by clearly states that the public was not happy," Walton said.

 

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