The Newport deliberative session will take place at 6 p.m. on Tuesday at Newport High School. Balloting on the warrant and election of town officers is from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, May 10, at the Newport Opera House.
Newport
The budget that will be discussed at Tuesday’s deliberative session calls for total spending of about $9.5 million — a decrease of around $15,000 from this year’s. An increase in non-tax revenue, however, would result in a municipal tax rate impact decrease of about 29 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation.
The proposed $5 increase in the motor vehicle registration would raise an estimated $37,500 in the first year, Town Manager Shane O’Keefe said.
“I have contacted other communities that have done it, and they seem to be happy with it,” O’Keefe said. “It is another way of raising funds to address much-needed infrastructure improvements.”
Also among the 15 articles are two bond requests to repair the Oak Street Bridge and rebuild 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and Knoll streets. Both articles need a majority vote to pass.
The road article is for about $3 million, which includes engineering and land acquisition. About $740,000 of the bond would be repaid with tax dollars, with the remaining repaid through the town’s water and sewer funds, which are supported by user fees.
The Oak Street project is for $509,000, with a little more than $100,000 coming from grants. Both bonds would be repaid over 20 years, and neither article would affect the tax rate next year because repayment would not start until the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2017.
O’Keefe said the Oak Street Bridge is in particularly bad shape and is down to one lane.
Not part of the warrant this year is any measure pertaining to the town-owned airport, Parlin Field. Last year, a petition article authorizing the town to consider selling or leasing the airport was defeated, but the Selectboard appointed a committee to look at the airport’s finances. No final report was submitted, and O’Keefe said there is no money in the proposed budget to cover any shortfall in the airport’s revenues, which was the town’s previous past practice.
Also to be decided at the polls in May is a zoning article that tightens rules regulating the spreading of septage — material pumped from septic tanks. The ordinance was passed by the Planning Board in October. Among its provisions, the ordinance would require that those who spread septage obtain a conditional use permit from the Planning Board, apply the material by injecting it below ground, and follow all state and federal regulations.
There are five articles seeking money for police, communications, sewer, district court and recreation reserve funds.
If all articles seeking appropriations with a tax rate impact are approved, the town rate would decrease 21 cents, or 1.8 percent, to $11.34 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation and result in a tax decrease of $31.50 on a $150,000 property.
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.
