Annual Town Meeting is March 3

Town Meeting Day is March 3, 2015. Whiting's Annual School Meeting will open at 7:15 p.m. at the Whiting Town Hall, with the Annual Town Meeting following immediately afterward. Budget proposals for the school district and the town will be presented and voted on.

Meeting attendees also will elect a Select Board member, Lister, Auditor and Library Trustee for three-year terms, as well as a Collector of Delinquent Taxes, Road Commissioner, First and Second Constable, Town Juror and Town Agent.

The school meeting will consider a $664,735 spending plan for the Whiting Town School District. Voters approved $612,360 (including a floor amendment addition of $26,800 for a pre-kindergarten program) for the schools at the 2014 meeting. So the current plan would include a spending increase of $52,375 or 8.55%. This is the second-highest percentage jump for any town in the Rutland Northeast Supervisory Union. Only the Town of Goshen would see its spending increase by a greater percentage, 28.9%. (The average spending increase for union towns would be 1.48%.)

The resulting homestead education tax rate for Whiting would be 1.50, an increase of 12.9% over the current 1.3281. The owner of a homestead property valued at $200,000, for example, would see education taxes rise $343.80 this year, from a level of $2,656.20 to $3,000.00, under the proposed spending plan. No town in the union district would experience a higher percentage increase or a higher tax rate. (The Town of Pittsford's tax rate would also be 1.50, after a jump of just 5.24%.)

The town meeting will consider a $300,252 proposed spending plan for the town, of which $179,321 would come from taxes. Last year's meeting approved a $290,591 budget with $158,026.21 from taxes. The budget proposal contains a $9,661 or 3.32% spending increase and an increase of $21,294.79 or 13.47% in the amount to come from taxes.

Also on the agenda for the town meeting is a proposal for the town to appropriate funds for the creation of a wall or plaque acknowledging the military veterans of Whiting.