4/7 11:49am Courtesy of NO-GO, voteno@no-go.org, as published in the April 7, 2006 Country Gazette. Please note the last sentence below. WRENTHAM - With failure of the $1.128million Proposition 2 1/2 override at Monday's town election, town officials are anxiously waiting to see what aid will be coming from the state, and preparing for a much leaner budget cycle that, in some cases, will mean layoffs.- JPBVoters on Monday made it clear they think the town needs to live within its means, overwhelmingly defeating the proposed override with 2,189 ballots cast against the tax increase, and 748 cast in favor of it. The override, which would have added 62 cents per $1,000 of valuation to the tax rate, was proposed to allow for "maintenance of effort" budgets to maintain town services at their present levels.
Without knowing exactly how much state aid is coming to the town for the next fiscal year, Town Administrator Steve Boudreau said there's a lot of guessing about how much budgets will be impacted by the override's failure.
At the moment, he said, officials are hoping they can go with a modest 1 percent increase. Department heads also prepared budgets reflecting 5 percent and 10 percent cuts prior to the election.
"We're going to do what's necessary to enact a responsible budget that meets the service needs of the town as best we can," Boudreau said Tuesday. "The voters have spoken and we obviously have to heed that."