WEST BATH — West Bath residents voted to adopt a $2.4 million municipal budget and a $3.9 million school budget at the town’s annual meeting on Thursday night. Under these newly adopted budgets, the town’s tax rate will stay flat.
Despite including funding for several projects, including $42,000 in upgrades and repairs at the town hall, the property tax rate will remain steady at $10.50 per $1,000 of valuation. The town used surplus funds from past years to avoid a tax increase.
Both the school board and the town’s budget advisory committee said one of their main priorities in crafting the budget plan was to avoid a tax hike in a year of economic uncertainty brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.
“The way the budget was passed, it gives the town some flexibility to shift money from certain accounts to offset other increases in spending,” said David Hennessy, who served as chairman of the town’s budget committee. “No one knows what’s gonna happen two months or six months from now, and next year it could be worse. So there is some flexibility to move some money around if we need, which is a great thing. ”
Many of the town’s programs saw reduced funding under the new budget, while others, such as the town’s donation to the Bath Area Food Bank, nearly doubled their funding.
Hennessy praised the work of the school board for doing what he called “the hardest job” in creating a fair budget plan that covers students’ needs with limited spending.
School board Chairman Keith Hines acknowledged the difficulty in maintaining this balance, saying, “We met weekly for months on end sort of kicking around, trying to figure out ways to provide the best quality education that we can while also being cognizant of the fact that there are folks in our community who are struggling and we don’t know what the economic impacts are going to be down the road.”
Both Hines and Hennessy credited Superintendent Emily Thompson for playing a significant role in building a budget conducive to schools’ changing needs and financial restrictions brought on by the pandemic.
“She’s backed this from the start,” Hines said.
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