ORRINGTON, Maine — Residents returned two selectmen and a school board member to their respective positions and approved a $10 million budget for municipal and school operations for the coming fiscal year during their local elections and annual town meeting on Monday.
In local elections, Charles Green and Kevin Allcroft were returned to their posts on the Board of Selectmen with 72 votes and 64 votes, respectively. Both incumbents were unopposed in their re-election bids.
Also unopposed for another term was incumbent School Board member Michael Mason.
During the annual town meeting, residents adopted a $10,051,898 combined town and school budget for the coming fiscal year, which begins July 1.
The budget includes funding for town and school operations as well as the county tax.
The overall budget reflects an increase of 2.8 percent, mainly because of increased costs for education and the county tax, Town Manager Paul White said Tuesday.
The $6,671,423 school budget reflects an increase of nearly 4 percent, while $445,784 county tax is up by 6.2 percent, according to Orrington’s annual report.
White said the 2015-16 municipal budget, which totals $2,569,816, is 1.12 percent lower than this year’s budget.
“We were very pleased that we were able to do that,” he said.
The newly approved combined budget should translate to a flat — or close to flat — property tax rate, White said. The town’s current tax rate is $14.35 per $1,000 in property valuation.
That’s because the town saw $4.5 million to $5 million in new valuation over the past year.
White said 81 residents participated in local elections and about 63 people attended the annual town meeting.