Mansfield Passes Budget

Despite concerns raised by a number of residents, Mansfield passed its annual budget by a comfortable margin Tuesday night.

During the tense two-hour meeting, residents had the opportunity to voice their opinions before voting to adopt the town/education budget for the 2011-12 fiscal year with 163 in favor and 77 opposed.

The proposed general fund budget was adopted by the Town Council at $44,131,150 during its April 19 meeting (including the Region 19 contribution of $9,729,230) --- an increase of $504,865, or 1.2 percent over the current budget. As it stands in the 2011-12 budget, Mansfield’s share of District 19 is $9.73 million. .

The budget also includes a $2,154,000 capital projects budget and a $1,006,000 non-recurring reserve fund budget, which covers one-time purchases or expenditures.

The current mill rate for the 2010-11 fiscal year is set at 25.71 and is expected to increase 0.97 mills, or approximately 3.8 percent to 26.68 mills to fund the council's adopted budget.

Some residents' nerves were visibly frayed at Tuesday’s meeting as they took to the microphone to share their thoughts, and proposed motions to decrease program expenditures.

While resident Virginia Raymond commended the council for its “hard work and efforts,” she said she was “gravely concerned” about where the economy was headed. Raymond proposed a motion to reduce the public safety capital program budget by $210,000 (nearly 81 percent of the public safety projects planned expenditures). The motion was swiftly seconded.

Ric Hossack was among the handful of residents who spoke in favor of Raymond’s proposal. “This forces the council to reconsider some of these areas of expenditure,” he said. “I think it’s time that we had a 0 percent increase in this town.”

Deputy Mayor Toni Moran countered the motion by saying that the $210,000 reduction would not affect the mil rate or lower taxes.

The motion was ultimately defeated by a paper vote after many in the audience contested the results of a voiced vote.

Resident Peter Plante then made a motion to reduce the public works capital fund program budget by $400,000 (approximately 34 percent of the public works projects planned expenditures). The proposal was firmly seconded, but many residents spoke out against the motion saying that the money was needed for the South Eagleville Road walkway project which they believed had been put off for too long, and was necessary for residents’ safety.

Resident David Freudmann vehemently disagreed, saying that a limited number of residents actually used the path for the proposed walkway and that the council should not bend to “pressure groups” looking to get their way.

Resident Bob Kremer spoke out against the proposal to cut funding. “It’s clear or should be to the community that South Eagleville Road is a high-traffic road,” he said.

The motion was eventually defeated by a paper vote after a voiced vote was again contested by some in the auditorium. 

After a motion was made to close the debate, the majority of taxpayers chose to accept the budget as adopted by the council through a paper vote.

Residents now have 21 days to submit a petition to send the budget to referendum with signatures from at least 2 percent of the registered voters in town. With 10,349 registered voters, the community would have to come up with around 207 signatures for a referendum.