Schools
How Soon Could Portsmouth See a Special Election?
With SOS submitting names to the town clerk on Tuesday, Patch takes a look at the next step in the referendum process and how much it will cost the town.
It appears that a referendum asking voters to restore $765,301 of the $1.1 million the Town Council cut from the school department's budget request will now go before voters this fall. On July 28, the council approved a town budget that level funds the town's school budget for the coming fiscal year.
On July 29, members of Save Our Schools (SOS), the local education advocacy group spearheading the effort to restore the funding, officially requested the referendum.
After a strong grassroots push over the last two weeks, SOS delivered 2,039 signatures to the town clerk's office on Tuesday morning. Under the town charter, 1,294 signatures are required to force a referendum.
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The referendum would authorize a total school budget of about $36.3 million, a 1.5 percent spending increase over FY 2010.
SOS says that if approved, the measure would increase taxes about 20 cents per thousand dollars of assessed value, or an additional tax hike of $71.44 annually for a $350,000 home.
Find out what's happening in Portsmouthfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Under the town charter, a special referendum election must be held on a Tuesday no less than 35 days, but no more than 45 days from the time that the Canvassing Authority certifies 1,294 signatures from a citizen petition.
Presuming that the threshold is met, the question will then go to the town solicitor to ensure the referendum is worded properly on the ballot.
The board will convene to certify that those who signed the petition are registered voters in town and that the signatures are not duplicates.
"If we certify on 25th, the election would be Oct. 5. If we get through the signatures quickly, it would be the week prior," said Registrar of Voters Madeline Pensak. The referendum could be held as early as Sept. 28.
Pensak said that the referendum election would likely be held at five polling locations, with a cost to the town estimated at $16,000-$20,000, depending on costs associated with advertising the referendum question, mail ballots, hiring poll workers, and rental fees for polling places.
Pensak said that the board had checked with the state Board of Elections to see if the special election could be held in conjunction with the primary election on Sept. 14 or the general election in November, but that was not allowed.
