By Suzanne Hodgson

Staff Writer

Taxpayers may haved waited months for Kennebunk officials to hammer out the final budget proposal but they will not wait in Town Meeting to actually vote on it.

Last year residents voted to change the Town Charter so they could vote using a ballot. Merton Brown in Kennebunk’s tax collector’s office said having more people show up to vote was one of the reasons the charter changed.

Town Manager Barry Tibbetts has discussed the one-page ballot for this year’s budget – currently proposed at $6.8 million. One-page ballots may save the town money in printing fees but the format means fewer questions with larger sums that may be confusing for residents who have not closely followed the budget process.

During the March 9 meeting, members of the public asked officials to possibly look at expanding the ballot to allow for more understanding.

Some members of the public argued if one question is voted down, officials would not know what part of that lump sum the public is voting against.

“That’s the purpose of these public meetings,” said Selectman David Spofford.

Budget Board member Larry Dwight agreed with Spofford, and noted public attendance at previous budget meetings was sparse.

Tibbetts said there is still time to make changes to the budget and ballot questions, but the budget board and selectmen had already voted on the budget one way and would need to re-vote if changes to the ballot were made.

“I was for line-item voting. It’s probably not realistic, but I wish it was,” resident Sue Walker said. “You’re forced to vote yes, you feel guilty if you don’t.”

“The budget has a zero percent increase. We did the budget faster than we’ve ever had because the line items are the same as last year,” Spofford said.

Town Clerk Joanna Moran suggested a checklist, which York uses. In order to keep the one page ballot, Moran said voters could pick up a packet that would have more thorough information, including a break down of all  budget information. Voters would not be able to take the entire packet inside the voting booth, but could take a numbered page on the back, a “cheat sheet” on which voters would mark yes or no to questions and take inside the booth to make the ballot process run quickly and smoothly. 

Moran said there is a state law that limits time in the voting booth to 10 minutes, and while she said she would not knock on the booth at the 11-minute mark, the “cheat sheet” would help speed up the process.

According to the budget timeline, residents still have a few weeks until the April 23 deadline when questions need to go to print.

Moran said the absentee ballots need to be ready 30 days prior to the June 8 referendum, and the April deadline allows enough time to proof and order ballots to be available on May 7.

Last week’s public meeting was part of the new voting process in which hearings must be held 90 days, 20 days and seven days prior to June 8 referendum.

Selectmen voted to continue the public hearing to address the number of questions on the ballot and other budget information at the next meeting scheduled for Tuesday.

Staff Writer Suzanne Hodgson can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 233.