Voters OK $43 million budget 463-to-89

More than 500 voters turned out for the Annual Town Meeting budget vote - one of the largest turnouts for this meeting in many years. Photo © by Brenda Sullivan. ----------

Usually when a budget meeting is as packed as Mansfield’s was tonight, it’s a sign that the budget is about to bite the dust.  However, that was not the case when 552 of the town’s electors filled the auditorium at Mansfield Middle School for the Annual Town Meeting.

The final count of the paper ballots was 463 in favor and 89 opposed - thus very decisively approving a $43,010,137 2009-2010 budget.

Based on what Mayor Betsy Paterson termed conservative estimates of state and federal revenues for the next fiscal year - expected to drop by more than $1 million - the impact of the approved budget on the tax rate is estimated to be a 1.88 percent increase, or an increase of .47 mills - bringing the tax rate from 25.24 to 25.71 mills.

And based on this rate, a homeowner with a house assessed at $200,000 would pay approximately an additional $94 a year in taxes.

Preceding the vote, a motion to eliminate funding in the budget for the Storrs Center project, and another motion to reduce the education budget by $150,000 were made. Both failed.  (A more detailed story will follow.)

Posted May 12, 2009

Video clips © by Brenda Sullivan. You will need Adobe Flash player to view.