ADDISON — Addison residents on Town Meeting Day will be asked to approve selectboard and highway budgets and charitable contributions that total less than a 1 percent increase in spending — or about $8,800 — over current levels.
Currently a penny on the Addison tax rate raises about $22,000, according to Town Clerk Marilla Webb; therefore, even with no grand list growth that increase will not have a major impact on the municipal portion of the town’s tax rate.
The warning seeks spending of $1,110,447 on roads and town office expenses, and $58,206 for donations to nonprofits.
But two separate articles on the March 5 ballot could push spending higher in the future if approved.
In one of those articles the selectboard is seeking residents’ support for a five-year loan to pay for a $125,000 culvert needed on Goodrich Corners Road. In the other, the board is seeking backing for a 15-year loan to fund a new $175,000 salt-and-sand shed. Town officials said a new shed is necessary to meet state requirements.
If voters back both of those articles on top of town, road and charitable spending, another roughly $37,000 plus a small amount of interest would be added to annual spending over the next five years.
As well as the two separate articles, this year’s Addison Town Meeting Day warning will include:
•  A highway budget of $764,136.
Highway spending proposed by the selectboard is proposed to drop in the 2019-2020 budget by almost $6,000 from the current level of almost $770,000.
•  A “selectboard budget” of $346,311 to cover the cost of all town officials’ salaries and benefit, fire protections, office maintenance and insurance, and other items. That budget rose about $14,000. Webb said there was no single major driver, but that many line items rose by a little.
•  Individually warned nonprofit donations that this March will total $58,206, a $500 increase from 2018.
Voters can discuss the ballot measures at the annual town meeting to be held at the Addison Central School, beginning at 7 p.m. on Monday, March 4.
Voting will be held from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 5. It includes a contested selectboard race between incumbent Peter Briggs and challenger Alden Harwood.