All Three Oxford Budgets Pass

UPDATE as of 8:15 p.m.

The $13.4 million town budget passed by just eight votes, and the $26.54 million school spending plan passed by 154 votes on Tuesday during a daylong referendum.

The $734,000 road repairs budget, which would go toward repairs of seven town streets (listed below), passed by 404 votes.

The Board of Finance set the tax rate at 24.1 mills immediately following the reading of the results at 8:10 p.m. at Quaker Farms School.

All told, 1,449 people voted. That is 17.32 percent of the 8,365 registered voters in town. 

School board members said they needed parents to head to the polls in order for the budget to pass and apparently the parents responded. Throughout the day, emails and phone calls were made by volunteer members of the Oxford Parent and Teacher Organization and the Oxford High School Booster Club, as well as other organizations affiliated with Oxford's four public schools. All of it was an attempt to get out the vote. 

The vote tallies were:

• Municipal Budget: passed, 725-717 
• Education Budget: passed, 800-646
• Roads: passed, 921-518

The spending plan will increase the tax rate to 24.1 mills, up from the current 23.21 mills, or a 3.83 percent increase.

Based on the new tax rate, a taxpayer with a house assessed at $250,000 will pay $223 more in real estate taxes next fiscal year, which begins July 1. Currently, that homeowner pays $5,802 in real estate taxes and will be expected to pay $6,025 next fiscal year. 

By the Numbers

1. Oxford municipal budget

Adopted 2011-12 Budget: $13,380,716

Proposed 2012-13 Budget: $13,407,217

Proposed increase: $26,501, or 0.2 percent

2. Oxford school budget

Adopted 2011-12 Budget: $25,939,146

Proposed 2012-13 Budget: $26,548,247

Proposed Increase: $609,101, or 2.35 percent

3. Capital and non-recurring

Spent in 2011-12: $98,130

Proposed in 2012-13: $734,000

Road projects included in this item include:

1. Silano Drive, $304,374 (reconstruction)
2. Oakwood and a portion of Redwood Road, $177,614 (reconstruction and sightline)
3. Cortland Place, $78,000 (overlay)
4. Prokop Road, $64,000 (overlay)
5. Edgewood Road, $45,000 (overlay)
6. Crest Road, $22,000 (overlay)
7. Middlefield Road, $43,000 (overlay)

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