CHARLESTOWN — Voters will head to the polls in Charlestown on Monday to decide the fate of $15.3 million in municipal spending for the coming fiscal year.
The financial town referendum takes place from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., with polling and ballot counting taking place at Town Hall.
Even though Charlestown’s share of the Chariho Regional School District budget, which already passed, is up slightly by $148,952 to $14 million, the bottom-line total of town expenditures is down 1.18%, coming in at $29.4 million.
The tax rate would nudge up to $5.78 per $1,000 of assessed valuation, an increase of less than three-quarters of 1% from the current rate of $5.74.
Next year’s spending plan for Charlestown includes money to pay for new positions in the tax assessor’s office and at Ninigret Park and to fund a new contract between the town and the local ambulance service.
The contract between the town and the Charlestown Ambulance Rescue Service accounts for the largest individual line item increase in the municipal budget this year, at $200,000.
The agreement that takes effect this year will move Charlestown off its subscription program for the ambulance service, funding it instead through the town’s budget process.
The three-year agreement the Town Council approved Oct. 10, 2023, commences on July 1, with Charlestown budgeting $747,474, or about $200,000 more than the $547,000 it gave in the current fiscal year.
Additional annual $200,000 increases are built into both year two and year three of the agreement, bringing the town’s total to more than $1.1 million by the end of the term.
Charlestown Ambulance Rescue officials have said the move will shore up the 50-year-old nonprofit’s finances and keep the vital service available to all in town.
As recently as May 14, the Town Council made adjustments to the budget proposal when it elected to use money currently in an impact fee fund to help rebuild Charlestown Elementary School’s playground.
The 20-year-old playground on school grounds was recently taken down, Council President Deborah Carney said, due to safety concerns.
The original hope, Carney said, was that a new play area could have been constructed if voters on May 7 had approved the $150 million schools bond question. Voters in Charlestown approved the bond, but it ultimately failed when Hopkinton and Richmond voted it down.
The proposal put forth May 13 would see the town use $150,000 from the Impact Fee Trust Fund, a reserve account. The council previously transferred $120,000 from the account into the budget as revenue, and Carney proposed adding an additional $30,000 from the account to allocate the full amount toward a line item for the playground.
In turn, the town would also transfer $120,000 from the town’s Chariho reserve account as revenue, to offset the use of the impact fee funds for the playground. An additional transfer of $12,495 from the Chariho reserve into the budget would balance the budget.
Funds to work on the playground could be available as soon as July 1 if voters pass the budget.
The town also would establish an expenditure line of $50,000 in the budget in anticipation of issuing the $2 million open space bond, enough for three months of payments. Voters approved the open space bond in 2017. Lastly, an additional $50,000 would move from the Chariho reserve to offset the bond payments.
