Portland Budget Referendum is Monday

Portland's referendum on the $29.815,800 budget for Fiscal Year 2011-12 will take place Monday at the Senior Center on Waverly Avenue from 6 a.m. until 8 p.m. It will be decided by a simple majority of those voting yes or no. 

Portland First Selectwoman Susan Bransfield says the budget calls for an increase in total spending, including schools, of only .66 percent. The tax rate will go up 0.35 mills.  

The public hearing Monday night was over in less than a half hour. Only two people spoke. One question was from a fife and drum corp volunteer about the budget for music education and a second about the five-year lease arrangement Portland will use to buy badly needed equipment. 

Afterward, Democratic selectman Brian Flood said the spending plan "Is very conservative based on what we could do in these trying times." Flood added that "We've held the line for the past couple of years really."

But Flood said they had to do what was necessary and make certain purchases or else "We're going to get way behind."

There will be a five-year lease to buy new town vehicles including three police cruisers to replace old ones,a new police SUV, two dump drucks and a zodiac rescue boat.  

Asked if another police cruiser needs to be purchased after two cars were badly damaged in a police chase last week, Bransfield said "That's an insurance matter." Finance director Tom Robinson added "We'll have to see what the settlement totals" and then assess on how to finance the difference.

Bransfield said one vehicle was totaled. It happened April 22nd during a late-night chase back and forth across the Arrigoni Bridge as police from Portland and Middletown tried to stop an allegedly intoxicated driver. The suspect, Ijeboi G. Holmes, 36, faces a hearing in Superior Court. Several charges include attempted assault on police officers.