East Hampton voters reject $15.17M budget package

EAST HAMPTON — Voters Tuesday overwhelming rejected the general government budget in a re-vote that appeared to focus on an earlier reduction in the Board of Education budget.

The result has spawned a range of complications.

In the original referendum vote May 14, the general government (or town) budget was defeated by three votes, while the education budget sailed through to approval. The defeat of the $15.17 million general government budget — which accounts of all noneducation spending — required a revote, which took place during 14-hour referendum Tuesday.

This time, the margin of defeat was 170 votes.

A total of 1,404 people voted (12 by absentee ballots) out of the 8,633 eligible to do so, moderator Robert “Red” McKinney said.

The Board of Finance will meet Monday to decide how to proceed.

In East Hampton, a no vote on a budget means the budget will be reduced. However, Finance Board Chairman Michael Rose said Tuesday he does not believe the informal rule should apply in this instance.

“I don’t look at this as a signal from the voters that they want the budget cut,” Rose said just after the vote totals were announced. Instead, Rose said he looked upon the defeat as a message from education supporters that “they want money put back in to a supplemental appropriation to the Board of Ed.”

However, the Town Council has already allocated much of money from a state grant to be used to pay down the anticipated increase in the tax rate.

The $700,000 in Education Cost Sharing funds were part of a last-minute bill approved by the General Assembly during the dying hours of the legislative session. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, meanwhile, has argued he retains the power to cancel the ECS grants to the cities and towns.

In the meantime, anticipating the budget might not pass, the town council earlier Tuesday evening set a temporary tax rate at the current rate of 31.32 mills. The council’s action will enable Assessor Gail Gwiazdowski and Assessor’s Assistant Kathi Race to prepare the tax bills that will go out later this month.

However, once the general government budget is finally approved, it will also force the town to send out a supplemental tax bill, Town Manager Michael Maniscalco acknowledged.

The usual pattern in town is for the education budget to be voted down while residents give their OK to approve the town budget. However, this year that formula was turned on its head.

The Board of Education had presented a budget calling for a 3.73 percent increase in spending in the 2018-19 fiscal year which begins July 1. The finance board’s Republican majority dramatically scaled back the size of the increase, reducing the proposed increase by $670,000, a 1.5 percent hike.

That decision raised the hackles of a number of education supporters who alternately begged, pleaded or demanded a restoration of some or all of the decrease. When that change was not forthcoming, they hit upon another approach: voting down the general government budget as a way of expressing their upset over the reduction in education funding.

Some supporters were also angered because town officials would not automatically commit to using some or all of a $700,000 state grant to restore funding for education. However, by voting down the general government budget, education supporters have placed in jeopardy capital items that benefit the schools, including safety door locks for classrooms and funds for computer tablets for students and Chromebooks for teachers.

In East Hampton, spending for capital items is contained in the town budget.