In today's budget referendum, Bethany voters rejected the 2014-15 budget of $22.7M by a vote of 440-264. A special meeting of the Board of Finance has been scheduled for tomorrow evening at 7pm to determine where to begin making cuts to a revised budget. But that may be easier said than done.
The largest portion of the budget is $9,204,690 for Bethany's contribution for the Amity Regional Schools which was approved by Bethany, Orange and Woodbridge at a referendum held on May 6th. The next single largest portion of the budget is for the Bethany Community School. That portion of the budget is $6,560,538 and, by law, cannot be reduced due to the minimum education budget requirement. All other budget items total $6,925,776, an increase of $274,452 over the FY 2013-14 Budget.
One of the members of the Board of Finance speculated that the road repair and land acquisition line items are among the most likely to take a significant hit. Tax Collector, Dave Forman, explained the downside of a referendum. “In our town meeting form of government, voters have the ability to ‘use a scalpel’ to trim areas of the budget during the review process. But now, with no direction from the voters, the Board of Finance will be forced to use an axe.”
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The Board of Selectmen has scheduled a special meeting for Wednesday to set the date for the next referendum.
