Lisbon taxpayers will vote Thursday on a proposed $9.45 million education budget, their second attempt to pass a school spending plan. The proposed budget would not require a tax increase. The finance b
oard recently recommended that the Board of Selectmen raise the mill rate from 16.0 to 16.9, based on the 2008-09 budget passed at the fifth referendum in December. Next year’s budget would not add to that mill rate. Polls will be open from 6 a.m. until 8 p.m. in Lisbon Town Hall. “I don’t understand why people want further cuts,” Board of Finance Chairman Michael Zelasky said. “The past couple of years people have asked for budgets with a zero mill increase. Now they have that, and they want more. I don’t understand that.” Voters defeated a proposed $9.63 million education budget by 36 votes at a referendum last month, and told town leaders through an advisory question to cut it. The Board of Finance cut the budget $175,000 after the Board of Education discovered an error in counting the number of students attending Norwich Free Academy. NFA also reduced its tuition increase for the coming school year. Florence Pawlikowski, who has spoken about education spending in the past, said she hopes the school budget fails, because she is opposed to spending money on Community Connections High School, an alternative program Lisbon started this year. The school is leasing space in Plainfield. “We have enough school right around here close by,” she said. “We don’t need it.”
oard recently recommended that the Board of Selectmen raise the mill rate from 16.0 to 16.9, based on the 2008-09 budget passed at the fifth referendum in December. Next year’s budget would not add to that mill rate. Polls will be open from 6 a.m. until 8 p.m. in Lisbon Town Hall. “I don’t understand why people want further cuts,” Board of Finance Chairman Michael Zelasky said. “The past couple of years people have asked for budgets with a zero mill increase. Now they have that, and they want more. I don’t understand that.” Voters defeated a proposed $9.63 million education budget by 36 votes at a referendum last month, and told town leaders through an advisory question to cut it. The Board of Finance cut the budget $175,000 after the Board of Education discovered an error in counting the number of students attending Norwich Free Academy. NFA also reduced its tuition increase for the coming school year. Florence Pawlikowski, who has spoken about education spending in the past, said she hopes the school budget fails, because she is opposed to spending money on Community Connections High School, an alternative program Lisbon started this year. The school is leasing space in Plainfield. “We have enough school right around here close by,” she said. “We don’t need it.”
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