NEW GLOUCESTER – Residents will vote on what one selectman described as an anti-war resolution at the town’s annual town meeting Monday night.
The meeting opens at 7 p.m. at Memorial School on Route 231. Resident Penny Hilton got the article on the warrant by conducting a petition drive. The purpose of the effort is to support and protect Maine National Guard soldiers and their families.
Steve Libby, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, called it an anti-war resolution.
If New Gloucester voters support the article, selectmen would send a letter on behalf of residents to state legislators and members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives asking for:
• Laws prohibiting deployment of National Guard members for active combat without sufficient training, and personal and vehicle armor appropriate to the kind of assaults that can be expected.
• Laws prohibiting long-term or repeated deployment of National Guard soldiers to areas outside the territorial United States.
• Repeal of all federal tax cuts instituted since Jan. 1, 2000, and prohibiting creation of additional tax cuts until all programs to train and equip all military personnel, including those in the National Guard, have been fully funded, and until all benefits to military families and veterans have been funded sufficient to their actual needs and to America’s debt and promises to them.
Most of the remaining articles deal with the budget, which stands at $3,142,902. If all the funding requests are approved, the municipal budget will go down from this year.
New Gloucester’s valuation has increased 3 percent to $390,000,000 over last year’s valuation of $377,142,000.
Voters will be asked to approve selling five properties taken for delinquent taxes.
For the first time, the budget includes stipends for qualified fire and rescue workers. Capital improvements include siding the Lower Gloucester Meeting House, installing a transfer station roof, and engineering and improvements at the New Gloucester Fairgrounds.
The SAD 15 budget is to be approved in June, and the town’s assessment to Cumberland County totals $200,000.
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