WALTHAM — Waltham residents at town meeting approved the town’s first 12-month fiscal-year budget, one that will run from July 1, 2017, to June 30, 2018, and returned several incumbents to office. In Australian balloting on Tuesday, Waltham voters backed Addison Northwest School District spending.
Waltham’s current budget is serving as a transition to fiscal year spending and spans 18 months, beginning on Jan. 1 2016 and running through June 30 of this year.
Voters backed from the floor of Monday’s meeting the Waltham selectboard 12-month proposals of $106,349 of general fund/administrative spending and $147,165 to take care of town roads.
In separately warned articles, residents also backed the board’s requests to use $23,000 of a projected fiscal year-end surplus to offset taxes, and another $90,000 of that surplus to dedicate to a capital reserve fund. Of that $90,000, voters specified they wanted to put $5,000 into a building and maintenance fund, $15,000 into highway reserve fund, and $70,000 into a capital reserve fund.
Residents also backed the Bixby Library request of a per capita increase of support from area towns to $22 from $18.94. In Waltham, that translated to a request for $10,962 for the coming year.  
Citizens also supported $3,809 in donations to nonprofits that serve Waltham and the county, an amount unchanged from a year ago.
From the floor of town meeting, Selectman Michael Grace, Town Clerk Mary Ann Castimore and Treasurer Lucille Evarts were among those re-elected to their posts.
Also supported was an article with two measures to create leniency for taxpayers who are not too late in submitting payments. One reduced the interest penalty from 8 to 2 percent if payments are a week or less late, and the other said the town would accept postmarks as a valid payment date.
Overall, ANWSD residents backed the proposed first-ever unified union budget of $21,116,289 by 924-699. In Waltham the vote ran in favor, 56-30, of a plan that will support the four ANWSD schools and its central office, plus the district’s share of the Hannaford Career Center budget.
Waltham residents also joined their peers in other ANWSD towns in supporting the creation of a $100,000 capital improvement fund by an overall margin of 1,008-608. The vote in Waltham ran 63-23 in favor.