JAY — The July 14, Regional School Unit 73 budget referendum vote was rescinded Tuesday night, July 7, with a new budget hearing set for Aug. 4, and the referendum vote Aug. 18.
The special meeting was held in the Spruce Mountain Middle School cafeteria. Some directors and others attended the meeting via Zoom.
The district’s budget approval process for 2020-21 had to be rescheduled.
“This meeting is taking place because our law firm made an error in our referendum documents,” Superintendent Scott Albert said in the email announcing the special board meeting.
“Warrants and related referendum ballots contain a substantial error as to the amount of taxes the school board intended and approved to fund the proposed school budget, which error can only be cured by rescinding the July 14 vote and rescheduling the 2020-21 budget approval process,” Board Chairman Robert Staples read from a document on the matter.
There was no discussion on what the error was.
Wednesday, the Sun Journal reported four school districts were forced to rescind their school budget questions.
In RSU 73, the local taxes to be raised to fund the $20.2 million total budget should have been $10.2 million. Question 1 on the warrant sought authorization of $7.4 million, or $2.9 million less than needed.
The June 15 district budget meeting had been changed to a June 23 informational meeting due to Governor Janet Mills’s Executive Order of June 3, which restricted gatherings to less than 50 people.
Director Tammy Frost asked about fees for another referendum vote.
“Drummond Woodsum said if they have to work extra time, they would pay for the extra time. They already reimbursed us for the time they worked on this,” Albert said.
The firm will also pay any municipal costs for cancellation and rescheduling of the budget votes in each district.
Are absentee ballots still good, Frost asked.
The school ballots aren’t, but everything else is still good, Albert replied.
“Instead of voting on August 18, we would have a lot more people voting if we pushed it back two months and two weeks to the presidential vote,” Director Dale Leblanc said.
“We’d definitely get more people but we need to get the budget approved as soon as possible,” Staples said.
The town clerks in Jay, Livermore and Livermore Falls were notified and the absentee ballots will be collected Wednesday, Albert said.
Does this put the district in a bind as far as paying bills, Director Michael Morrell asked.
“We’ll go under last year’s budget until a new one is approved. For the towns, the recommendation is to go on the numbers for the July payment already approved,” Albert said. “If we have to, it’s easier to give money back than trying to collect.”
Monday, July 6, Albert had said RSU 73 wasn’t the only district in which an error had been made.
“I was not given that information from our lawyer, she just stated that there was at least one other district that an error had been made,” Albert responded in an email Tuesday asking for more information.
“I’d prefer not to give the individual’s name at this time,” he later responded to a request for contact information.
In other business, the board voted to rescind posting for a bus mechanic and enter into a contract extension agreement for one year with Bailey Bros. Ford that will expire on June 30, 2021.
“Hiring of the mechanic got pushed back because of the whole budget thing. We’re still trying to get financing for Phase 2 (of the Siemens project),” Albert said prior to the vote. He said the board could wait a year, see where it’s at in the next budget season.
The Aug. 18, RSU 73 budget referendum vote will be held from 12 to 6 p.m. Jay voters will cast ballots at the Spruce Mountain Elementary School, Livermore Falls voting will be at the Town Office and Livermore will be at the Spruce Mountain Primary School.
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