SKOWHEGAN — Voters in Skowhegan will be asked to fix a $158,071 typo at a special town meeting Tuesday.
The special meeting is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. in the council room at the Municipal Building at 225 Water St.
At the annual town meeting June 10, the amount listed in the article for general government on the town meeting warrant was $2,265,924, when it should have been $2,423,995.
“The honest answer is that the person who typed this was overworked, hadn’t had much of a break, was here late nights, working through lunches and made a typo,” Town Manager Dawn DiBlasi, who started the job in May, said at the June 10 town meeting. “Basically, what was voted on by the select board and the Budget Committee is not the number that was put into Article 3. It was a mistake.”
The issue could not be corrected at the regular town meeting because the amount listed in a warrant article cannot be increased, though it can be decreased by amendment.
At the June 10 town meeting, voters approved an amendment that reduced the mistakenly printed Article 3 by $40,000, to $2,225,924.
The amendment does not affect the additional amount that voters are being asked to raise and appropriate Tuesday, DiBlasi and selectmen said. In other words, if the total of $158,071 is approved at the special town meeting, the total general government budget would be $40,000 less than what selectmen had proposed to voters.
Skowhegan residents vote June 10 at the annual town meeting, which ran more than four hours. Jake Freudberg/Morning Sentinel, file
The general government budget includes several administrative departments and related costs.
Spending approved by voters June 10 totaled $17.53 million, compared to the selectmen’s proposed $17.70 million spending plan. Most of that difference was because of the typographical error in the general government article.
The proposal was a 1.84% increase to the budget approved last year, according to municipal documents.
Provided that the error in the general government article is corrected at Tuesday’s special town meeting, the amount to be raised by taxation in the approved budget would represent about a $520,000, or 3.56%, increase to last year’s spending plan.
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