Boothbay voters approved all articles at the annual town meeting held at the Boothbay Railway Village Town Hall on May 6. The moderator Carl “Chip” Griffin started the meeting by announcing the referendum results held earlier in the day.

A total of 546 Boothbay residents cast votes at the Boothbay Town Office. All five candidates who ran unopposed were elected to office.

For the incumbents, Charles Cunningham (board of selectmen) received 493 votes, Kevin Anthony (school district trustees) received 492 votes, and Stanley Lewis (cemetery district) received 508 votes.

The new candidates, Jon Lewis (water district trustees) received 502 votes and William Bailey (school committee) received 497 votes.

The secret ballot for Articles 3 and 4 received 558 votes.

Article 3, which asked if the town would appropriate $167,808 for the Boothbay Region Ambulance Service, was approved by 424 Yes votes to 129 No votes.

Article 4 asked if voters supported the maintenance of a “Critical Access Hospital” at St. Andrews Hospital. 485 voters said Yes, and 73 voters said No.

The rest of town meeting was held in open town meeting forum. The remaining articles dealt with, appropriations to outside organizations, adopting the municipal budget, disposal of excess non-tax acquired property, and increasing the property tax levy limit.  

Most of the articles on the warrant passed unanimously with little to no dissent. Article 7, which would authorize selectmen to dispose of town-owned, non-tax acquired property, passed with an additional amendment proposed by selectman Cunningham. The amendment stipulated that there must be three public hearings held before any piece of property could be put out for sale.

The one article that drew the most discussion, and at times confusion, was Article 22. Article 22 asked if voters would increase the property tax levy limit if the town is to exceed its estimated municipal budget. The article is commonly referred to by state law makers as “LD 1.”

Local State Representative Bruce MacDonald referred to Article 22 as the “What If” vote pertaining to if the town experienced a sudden loss in revenue. At that time, residents would have a choice to allow Boothbay to increase spending if the town exceeded the estimated budget.

A No vote would ensure that the current tax rate would not rise from the current rate of 7.67 percent, but it would also force the selectmen to make difficult cuts to an already lean budget.

Town Manager Jim Chaousis explained that Article 22 needed to be carefully considered this year due to the uncertainty of bigger forces at play, such as Governor Paul LePage’s biennial budget proposal that could potentially eliminate roughly $100,000 of state revenue to the town of Boothbay.

LePage’s proposed budget cuts, coupled with the recently approved appropriation of $167,808 for added ambulance service, could potentially exceed the state mandated levy limit by about $150,000.

However, MacDonald said it was unlikely LePage’s budget would pass since it's currently failing to get backing from both democrats and republicans at the state house.   

“I think that (the estimated town budget) is a good conservative assumption that the town has made, and I believe that after all (the state) budget negotiations are done, that we won’t have to exceed the tax levy limit …

“But (Article 22) gives the selectmen the authority to do that if they should need it,” MacDonald said. “But given the rate that this town is carefully run, I think we should support this with a Yes vote.”

In a secret ballot, Article 22 passed with 60 Yes votes to 19 No votes.

For a total breakdown of the results click the attachment above.