Gray Town Council debated cuts to the fiscal year 2026 budget on Aug. 5, after four key items were voted down during the town’s budget referendum in June.
According to Town Manager Michael Foley, voters rejected four articles, which included Article 3, the $13,466,500 main municipal budget; Article 4, which would have raised $10,500 for Town Council compensation; Article 6, which would have authorized the transfer of $315,139 in TIF funds; and Article 14, authorizing the issuance of $1.9 million in general obligation bonds to refinance prior bonds.
Gray’s town charter requires that the town hold a special town meeting to address the failed articles, which is expected to take place on Sept. 9. This would be unusual for Gray, which moved away from the traditional town meeting model in 2009 in favor of voting on budgets by referendum.
The revised budget reduces spending by $825,011 from the previous fiscal year. Debt service, which was previously included under capital improvements, will be reduced by $422,101, or 34.6%. The town had initially proposed borrowing to refinance higher-interest, long-term debt to further support a balanced municipal budget, but the proposal was withdrawn after being rejected at referendum. Capital projects will be funded by a mixture of $636,000 from the town’s reserve fund and $10,000 from grant funding.
Other changes from last year’s fiscal budget on a department level include a reduction of $547,634, or 11.5%, in administration, and $22,348, or 2.4%, in library and recreation funds. Public Safety and Public Works will see increases of $323,097, or 14.8%, and $38,225, or 0.9%, respectively. The budget will also reduce annual paving expenditures by $203,000 due to favorable pricing.
A proposal in the initial draft of the revised budget, to increase the work week at the Town Office to 40 hours by restoring Friday hours, has since been revised to 37.5 hours.
The revised budget proposes a municipal tax rate of $2.46, a reduction of 48 cents, or 16.3%, from last year’s budget, as well as a school tax rate of $6.37, an increase of 48 cents, or 10.1%. The rates, combined with a tax-increment financing rate of 43 cents and county rate of 47 cents, add up to a total tax rate of $9.72, an increase of 2 cents over the previous fiscal year, and a cut from the previous proposed rate of $10.17.
The council had a wide range of reactions to the proposed cuts. Councilor Anne Gass asked about the impact of the cuts, saying that it’s important for the people there to hear how the town would be affected. Councilor Vincent Palange responded that no jobs would be affected, and ultimately, no services either, while Foley said that more information on the revised budget could be downloaded from the town website, including a budget book with ClearGov information.
In addition, several representatives from the various departments were present at the meeting to answer questions from the council about what the proposed cuts mean for their department.
Andrea Kazilionis, director of Gray Public Library, spoke about how the library has been able to “do a lot with a little,” adding 3,450 items to its collection over the last year with its $30,000 book budget. The average amount spent on one book, she said, was $11, significantly below the average retail price of a hardcover book, around $40, thus saving the town $70,000 in book costs. The revised town budget, Kazilionis said, would cut the book budget to just $16,000, significantly reducing the number of items the library would be able to acquire in FY 26, and cutting availability of books for families. Kazilionis then shared a story about a time when she met a little girl who told her that the library was a magical place, and told the council that she wanted to keep the magic surviving into the future.
Another resident lambasted the budget cuts more broadly, saying that they would negatively impact the town’s ability to fund its comprehensive plan. Speaking positively of walkable and developed towns in states such as Ohio and Colorado, he said that, if the town keeps cutting their budget, it would find itself with a town that no one wants to be in or invest in, where services would erode and costs would not go down.
Ultimately, the council agreed to have a meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 19, where it would make cuts and vote on the warrant items, delaying it from an initially proposed date.
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