Recount triggered as budget fails by 3 votes

EAST HAMPTON — In a rare move, voters approved the education budget but narrowly rejected the general government budget Tuesday.

The $30.5 million education budget was approved by a vote of 972 to 847, giving Superintendent of Schools Paul K. Smith his third-in-a-row budget approval on the first referendum. However, the general government (or town) budget was defeated by a vote of 907 yes to 910 no. Both budgets total $45.64 million. General government includes funding for the highway, police and fire departments, as well as all the town’s other noneducation departments. As such, the budget is not usually controversial.

However, following the outcome of the vote Tuesday, there were suggestions the rejection of the general government budget was the due to a retaliatory effort engineered by a group of education activists.

The three-vote difference was close enough to trigger an automatic recount, moderator Robert “Red” McKinney said.

Immediately following the vote tally, Registrar of Voters Lori Wilcox would not respond to a reporter’s question about when the mandatory recount will be held. Mid-afternoon Wednesday, Town Clerk Sandra Wieleba said Wilcox and Democratic Registrar Stefanie Lee were meeting to decide when the recount will be held.

Meanwhile, Board of Finance Vice Chairman Richard Brown said the town budget had been much lower than the school budget.

“The town actually did a very good job with their budget,” which he described as “concise and responsible.”

Asked to explain why the general government budget was rejected, Brown said, “There was a vocal cry from Facebook trolls” urging residents “to vote yes on the school budget, but no on general government. That’s the only explanation I have.”

The activists were angered by a steep reduction in proposed spending of education that was imposed on the five-member Republican majority on the finance board.

The board voted 5-2 to whittle the Board of Education’s proposed 3.73 percent increase down to 1.5 percent — a reduction of $670,000.

Brown’s assessment appears to have been borne out by postings on social media sent to Town Manager Michael Maniscalco. Wednesday afternoon, Maniscalco said following the vote, he had received messages from people who “bragged” they had voted against the general government total.

What’s more, Maniscalco said, these individuals said they would continue to vote against the budget until all of the more than $700,000 in state grants the General Assembly approved last week goes to restoring the original request from the Board of Education.

“No one has said where or what the additional revenues will go to yet,” Maniscalco said. “These funds will most likely need to be allocated through an additional appropriation process, one that would involve “a BOF recommendation, Town Council approval and, possibly, a town meeting.”

Smith said he did not support rejecting the town budget. “It would not be wise to do (that).”

He explained the general government contains funding for education in the capital improvements portion of the budget. Among items being sought by the schools are new door locks as well as funding for new teacher Chromebooks, Smith said.