Quorum in question for East Greenwich town meeting
2:35 PM Mon, Jun 08, 2009 | Permalink
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EAST GREENWICH, R.I. -- The biggest question about Tuesday night's Financial Town Meeting is, "Will it be held?" If 250 voters come out at East Greenwich High School and stick around long enough to pass a budget, it will mark the first time the annual meeting has had a substantive vote since 2000. The session will convene at 6:30 and proceed with budget presentations. If a quorum is not reached by 7:30, the Town Council's budget of $32 million for the schools and $15 million for municipal services will take effect. The total $47 million budget is less than 1 percent higher than last year. After the gifted program for fourth, fifth and sixth graders was cut by the School Committee to save $85,000, supporters have talked about coming to the meeting to try to restore those funds. But it's not clear, in this economy, if they will be able to muster the votes. Back when the quorum was only 50, school supporters routinely restored money to the school budget. It took only 130 voters to authorize spending $1.7 million on an additional high school gym in 1998, 80 voters to increase the school budget by $80,000 the following year, and fewer than 200 people to add $243,000 to the schools in 2000. Then, in the 2000 election, voters changed the quorum requirement to 5 percent of registered voters, or about 500 people. There hasn't been a budget vote since. There was a quorum to start the meeting in 2001, but before school supporters could add any money, opponents of the plan deliberately left the meeting, so the quorum was lost and no vote was taken. In 2004, the quorum requirement was amended again, scaled back to 250 voters. gemery@projo.com / (401)277-7442 
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