After some confusion about an unusual city charter provision that sets a threshold for the number of voters needed to reject budgets, Sanford officials have determined a second vote on the proposed school budget is required.

Sanford voters last week rejected both the city and school budgets by slim margins, but officials believed both were considered passed because the number of votes cast fell short of a threshold laid out in the city charter.

In order for a Sanford budget to be considered rejected by voters, the total number of votes cast must meet or exceed 25 percent of the city’s votes from the last gubernatorial election. There were 1,849 ballots cast in last week’s budget referendum, 18 short of the number required to reject a budget.

But after the school budget failed by a vote of 1,054 to 862, both school and city attorneys looked at state law and the charter to see if the 25 percent requirement applied to the school budget. They determined it did not, Superintendent David Theoharides said Monday.

That means the school budget will again go to voters for the first time in the past decade, but Theohardies said the process remains unclear. School and city officials met Monday and will meet again Tuesday to determine if the school budget process will start from “square one,” with the budget committee forwarding a proposal to the school board, he said. The proposal would then be sent to the City Council for a public hearing and vote before a second referendum.

“I’m unsure what to do with the budget. Am I supposed to cut it? We have no indication on that,” Theoharides said. “I have no idea if people want me to cut $5 or $500,000. This vote didn’t tell you anything at all about what to do other than that they were unhappy.”

Residents voted last week on a $24.2 million city budget and a $38.1 million education budget. The combined budgets amounted to a 2.44 percent overall spending increase. The increase would result in an extra $120.70 on the tax bill of a home valued at $170,000. But city officials say that increase would be offset by an increase in the homestead exemption for anyone who owns a home valued at $170,000 or less.

The proposed school budget would have eliminated four positions that had previously been funded by a Nellie Mae grant. Educational programming would have remained the same, but school officials said an increase was needed to deal with special education costs and increases in salaries and benefits.

In the week before the election, City Councilor Victor DiGregorio posted signs across the city urging people to vote against the budget and calling for no tax increase.

Voters ultimately rejected the city budget by a vote of 1,054 to 785.

The City Council on Tuesday will vote on orders to send the budget back to the budget committee for consideration, to set a public hearing at 6 p.m. June 30 and to require the budget committee to recommend a budget to the City Council no later than July 25. The council also will vote on an order to set a referendum vote for Aug. 23.

Theoharides said he would like to have the referendum sooner than Aug. 23, but didn’t know Monday if that would be possible. The school department will operate using the current budget when the new fiscal year begins July 1.

Theoharides said the school department will not be allowed to spend its 2016-17 allocation from the state because it hasn’t been approved by voters.

“It’s a mess,” he said.

City Clerk Sue Cote said applications for absentee ballots for the August referendum are now available on the city website and at City Hall. Absentee ballot requests must be made by Aug. 18 and the ballots must be returned to the clerk by Aug. 23.

Gillian Graham can be contacted at 791-6315 or at:

ggraham@pressherald.com

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