Twenty-one percent of registered voters responded to the referendum on the proposed budget on Tuesday. The budget failed on a vote of 944-689. 

What are the next steps?  The Board of Finance will meet to determine another round of bulk cuts proposed to the individual budgets. Subsequent to that meeting, the individual boards (Selectman and Education) will develop line item reductions and propose those to the Board of Finance. A new date for the budget vote will be set and the community will once again vote at the community center for the new proposed budget.

IF adopted, a new mill rate will be set and that will determine the operating budgets for the town and schools. If the budget fails again, the process will repeat itself until a budget is adopted by the community.  If the referendums extend beyond July 1, the BOF will set a temporary mill rate and residents will be taxed accordingly. When a mill rate is adopted, and if it is below the temporary mill rate, residents would be reimbursed for the excess tax collection. 

I hope we don’t get this far in the process as the administrative costs to do rebate checks in addition to the thousands of dollars spent on referendums is money that could be spent on operating expenses.  You will be making that decision. I encourage each of you to remain involved in the budget process to ensure that we continue to embrace and cherish the services the Town of Canton provides to all of its citizens.

Thank you,

Kevin Witkos