ELLSWORTH, Maine — After rejecting a proposed annual schools budget last month, local voters on Tuesday approved a revised budget by more than a 100-vote margin.
The results were 286 people in favor of the proposed $19.78 million 2015-2016 budget and 175 opposed.
The 461 people who cast ballots in Tuesday’s referendum represent 8.4 percent of the city’s 5,500 registered voters, according to city officials.
On June 9 voters rejected a proposed $19.9 million budget by a 129-to-105 vote. In that vote, only 234 voters, or 4.2 percent of the city’s registered voters, cast ballots in the referendum.
Following the June 9 vote, Ellsworth school officials revised the rejected budget, cutting an additional $135,000 in expenses, before submitting it for approval, first from the City Council and then from voters.
The new $19.78 million budget goes into effect immediately. Since June 30, when the 2014-2015 school year ended, the school department has been operating by law under the rejected $19.9 million budget — the most recent one approved by the City Council.
