Tuesday's Council Debate to Focus on a Referendum Date

The Tuesday annual budgetary Town Meeting has evolved into a two-fold scenario for the Town Council:

• Gather public input.
• Decide on a referendum date.

Despite two residents filing a petition for referendum, the full agenda must be followed. That means the public hearing goes on. The meeting is slated for 7 p.m. at Rockville High School and the agenda is attached.

The bottom line on the proposed budget for the 2012-13 fiscal year is $80,599,160, an increase of $1,305,411 over the $79.2 million budgeted for the current fiscal year. It is an overall increase of 1.65 percent, Finance Officer and Treasurer James Luddecke said.

General government has been set at $26,172,367, an increase of $599,988.

Capital improvement and debt service has been set at $6,245,796, $13,216 less than this year's total.

Education is being sent to the town meeting at $48,180,997, an increase of $718,639.

Mayor George Apel had proposed an $81,346,432 budget. The council took out $747,272.

The budget proposal would force taxes to increase from their current level of 29.9 mills to 33.63, an increase of 3.73 mills.

Luddecke said an increase of .7 mill can be attributed to taxes. The remaining 3.03 is the end result of the town getting hammered on the grand list in a revaluation year with a struggling economy, he said.

Former Town Council member and Democratic mayoral candidate Pauline Schaefer and her husband, Carl, have turned in a referendum petition with 220 signatures, Carl Schaefer said on Monday. That is 20 more than required.

The council is slated to meet immediately after the Town Meeting.

Town Attorney Harold "Hal" Cummings said the referendum must take place seven to 14 days from the meeting.

Deputy Mayor Brian Motola said that the council debate will revolve around setting a date to vote on the budget. Hew said the council needs the public input in case there is a demand to revise the budget.