Town meeting approves extra bump for Lincoln schools
2:25 PM Tue, May 13, 2008 | Permalink
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LINCOLN — Voters at last night’s financial town meeting voted to increase the school committee’s 2008-09 budget by $517,248 more than the town Budget Board recommended. The Budget Board had proposed a $47.78 million school budget, a $1.1 million increase over this year’s spending, or about 2.5 percent. During the meeting at the high school last night, a motion from the floor was approved that raised the total to $48.3 million, or an overall increase of $1.67 million over this year, for a 3.6 percent jump. The rest of the Budget Board’s proposal was approved virtually as presented, for an overall town/school budget of $71.8 million The action means that the tax rate will probably go up by around 30 cents per thousand of assessed value, from $16.82 to $17.12, Town Administrator T. Joseph Almond said. -- Journal Staff Writer John Hill The vote to increase the school budget left some town officials seething, as in the weeks before the meeting the School Committee had stressed the need for a united front with the Budget Board and the town administrator on the budget that was being presented to voters. Almond said he was particularly bothered because no one during the discussion about adding the $517,248 could explain what it would pay for that was not already in the budget. “Usually, the argument is it is needed to restore something,” Almond said. “You had an entire School Committee that just sat there silent when it was asked ‘what is this money for.’ ” School Committee Chairwoman Mary Anne H. Roll said the committee was caught off guard when the increase was proposed. She said the committee had no role in preparing the motion and had been focusing its efforts on how to defend the original $47.78 million figure, not add to it. “Nobody was more surprised than the members of the School Committee,” Roll said. “We did not organize that,” she said. “We had no strategy for that.” Almond said the committee members should have spoken against the increase, but Roll said the committee members didn’t think they could, in good conscience, speak against an increase if the voters wanted to approve it. She asked what the Town Council would have done had a motion to increase town services come from the floor. 
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This is the EXACT reason that the Finanical Town Meeting should be abolished!!
A small group of people setting the tax rate is madness! This year $500K, next year $1.5 million increrase?
As usual, the school committee showed their true colors - a feckless, greedy bunch of cowards.
Don't like being called that? Well, why don't you show some "leadership" Mrs. Roll and put the added $500K in escrow for next year budget?
What's your "excuse" for not doing that, Mrs. Roll?
Or do you just continue your merry way and spend all of it this year? You can always have your "lackies" add another $1.5 million next year anyway.
What the heck, it's not like its your hard earned money, is it School Committee members.
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Mary Anne Roll is so full of it. I guess she had no idea it was the President of the Teacher's Union in Lincoln who fought for the increase from the floor. Nor did she know that it was the Barrs and former School committee man Jeff Weiss leading the way. What a liar. So my taxes go up because she sandbagged the Town. She needs to join her husband in the group of unemployed former town leaders who tried to scam the system for their own good.
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