New Budget Lowers Tax Rate

The line to sign up for voting was longer than the debate at Tuesday's Annual Town  Meeting.

That tends to happen when the tax rate is slated to go down.

And it did just that, from the current level of 30.02 mills to 29.9 mills.

A crowd of 122 inside the Rockville High School auditorium overwhelmingly approved a $79.29 million budget for the 2011-12 fiscal year in a 31-minute meeting,

Mayor Jason McCoy urged residents and taxpayers in attendance to vote for the budget because, he said, taxes are going down and no services are being cut, something that was reiterated by council member Daniel Champagne. There was smattering of no votes after a clear majority voted in favor of the budget and three Town Council members - Marie Herbst, Pauline Shaefer  and James Krupienski - abstained.

The $79,293,749 budget represents an increase of $572,290 - or .73 percent - over this year's $78.7 million spending package. Education accounts for $47.4 million, down .2 percent; general government $25.5 million, down .38 percent; and debt service $6.2 million, up 13.96 percent.

Krupienski said he abstained because the council did a poor job in reviewing several accounts - some that could have been trimmed and some that could have been reinforced.

The meeting was delayed 51 minutes because long lines formed at the tables used for checking voted eligibility. One resident who ignored the rules by not reciting his name into the record blamed meeting organizers and Town Administrator John Ward apologized for the delay. In reality, many people showed up about 10 minutes before the scheduled start and the lines built quickly.

In all, five people asked questions or made public comments.