NORWAY — Voters at Thursday night’s special town meeting added $213,062 to the 2013-14 municipal budget, the amount of state revenue sharing restored by the Legislature when it overrode Gov. Paul LePage’s state budget veto this week.
The added money brings the town budget to $1,401,747, and means taxpayers will see “very little” in the way of a tax increase, Town Manager David Holt said.
Taxpayers were looking at an increase of $50 per $100,000 of property value without the revenue sharing.
“The feared tax increase will not happen now as a result. There won’t be much of any tax increase,” Holt said.
He said state Rep. Tom Winsor, R-Norway, was the only local legislator to override the governor’s veto.
In other town meeting action, the nearly 30 voters unanimously approved the restoration of $12,000 from the Surplus Account to retain the current town office hours and another $2,000 to maintain the pay level of some town office employees and provide a slight increase for others.
The move to restore some of the smaller budget cuts made at annual town meeting June 17 came after the majority of voters rebuffed the recommendations of selectmen and the Budget Committee. They instead voted for $207,764 more than selectmen recommended and $166,566 more than the Budget Committee.
The action restored a full-time position in the Police Department, a full-time position in the Highway Department and created a full-time fire chief position.
While the action to restore $14,000 was unanimously supported Thursday night, resident Ken Zerbst asked if money could be restored for the care of the town cemeteries, particularly to address a dangerous tree situation in the Norway Center Cemetery and some broken headstones.
Saying the cemetery maintenance budget was cut by one-third for the new fiscal year, he asked that $19,500 to be restored to the account.
“I feel we owe it to the veterans that were in town buried there,” he said. “I think it’s very important to the town.”
Town officials said they could not entertain the proposal because it was not within the scope of the town meeting warrant under discussion, but they would support the request at the next special town meeting.
“I’m aware of the big tree (in the Norway Center Cemetery) and it’s awful,” Holt said. He agreed the maintenance money should be restored as soon as possible.
Voters also agreed to restore a second park ranger position by adding $4,500 from the Surplus Account and using $3,200 from the account to pay debt service.
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