SAD 4 $7.16M budget approved
Stuart Hedstrom
Staff Writer
GUILFORD — Citizens of the six communities making up SAD 4 passed a $7,162,270 budget — with a local assessment of $3,672,811 — for the 2015-16 academic year during the Aug. 25 referendum. The budget was passed by a vote of 284 to 261, with the 23-vote difference representing 4.2 percent of the 545 residents of Abbot, Cambridge, Guilford, Parkman, Sangerville and Wellington who headed to the polls.
The $7.16 million budget was the third brought to the public in the last several months, with the spending plan reduced each time after being turned down via referendum. In late July the second budget, totaling a little more than $7.2 million with a local assessment of approximately $3,736,000, did not pass.
The figure set for the current school year is down by just under $195,000 from 2014-15. The combined town assessment is up by 4.58 percent, ranging from the smallest increase of 3.82 percent for Cambridge to 6.15 percent for Parkman.