Small group of Alton voters send $10.2 million budget to Special Town Meeting in June

ALTON — Turnout was low and conversation was brief at a special deliberative session at Prospect Mountain High School on Tuesday, where voters approved sending a revised budget of just over $10.2 million to the ballot at a Special Town Meeting in June.

The revised budget represents a 5.1% increase over the 2025 budget of $9.73 million, and a 4.4% increase over the default budget of $9.8 million. The revised budget up for vote includes three firefighter positions, including a full-time lieutenant, following a change made by the budget committee last month.

If the revised budget is voted down, the town will adopt the default budget, which town leaders have said will be a strain for departments, notably emergency services.

Selectboard Chair Paul LaRochelle said the revised budget came from the due diligence of department heads. He said the proposal has a tax impact of $4.53, or a difference of $0.19 from the default budget’s tax impact of $4.34.

The original proposed operating budget failed 504-551 at Town Meeting on March 10. In the days that followed, Town Administrator Ryan Heath worked with town department leaders to put together a budget more palatable. It was the third straight year the proposed operating budget was voted down, leaving town employees without raises, and leaders working with a default budget.

Most of the increase in the original proposal was personnel. There were four, full-time firefighter positions, and a pair of part-time Town Hall employees approved at the 2025 Town Meeting in a separate warrant article, and those positions were included in the original 2026 proposed budget. The budget also included merit raises for employees who have not been received a raise the previous two years.

The selectboard approved a revised budget of $10.13 on March 27, which was a 4.1% increase compared to the rejected original proposal, which had a 10.9% increase. That revised budget included two full-time firefighter positions, and two Town Hall Part-time workers who don’t receive benefits.

The revised budget was brought before the budget committee on April 8, which ultimately voted to add a full-time fire lieutenant, in addition to the two firefighters already proposed, amounting to $90,000. That brought the revised proposed operating budget total to $10.2 million, and the revision was brought to the deliberative session on May 5.

About 65 voters came to the deliberative session, which lasted less than 20 minutes. Several residents spoke and asked questions, but no amendments were proposed. The meeting had a 1.5% voter turnout rate, based on 4,284 registered voters for the 2024 presidential primary. 

Resident Loring Carr asked for clarification on the amount of staff raises, and LaRochelle said a 4% raise came to $309,923. Carr said this equates to the difference, minus the assessing values.

Robert Butler asked what the annual rate for budget increases for the last 10 years has been. While the selectboard and budget committee members scrambled to find figures, former selectboard member Cydney Shapleigh came up with numbers of her own.

“My goal here is to have this discussion, and put it on record, so we are dealing with reality and not emotion, and that we’re basing our decisions on facts and not Facebook,” Shapleigh said.

She said she recently saw a social media post where someone said they couldn’t afford another 14% increase in taxes. Shapleigh said this implied two things: they were looking at that increase now, or in the past. Neither, she said, is true.

Shapleigh said the 2015 total tax rate was $14.27 per thousand, and by 2020, it dropped to $13.95, a decrease of 2.24%. In 2025, it decreased even more to $13.50, which is a drop of 3.22% from 2020. Overall, during that 10-year period, there was a 5.37% tax increase.

“And it wasn’t because people voted down the budget,” Shapleigh said. “It was because the people we elected to do their job, are doing it. But people aren’t coming to deliberative sessions, and they don’t understand what they’re voting on. There is a segment of the population that will come in consistently and vote 'no' for the sake of voting 'no.'”

To go deeper, she said Social Security cumulatively has increased 31.7% in that same 10-year period.

“I don’t understand, honestly, what is happening in town,” Shapleigh said. “We’re not making decisions based on facts. This is not the reality. Because reality doesn’t fit a certain narrative doesn’t mean the whole town should pay.”

Shapleigh pointed out the major decreases in the revised budget are coming from the most important area: safety.

“Police, fire, [public works],” Shapleigh said. “Those are all safety factors, yet those are where the biggest cuts come from. That hurts every single one of us, whether you’re on a fixed income or not, and I hope people are taking that into consideration.”

Shapleigh said there is a responsible group on both the budget committee and the selectboard, who are doing what they need to do to keep taxes low.

Steve Lydon said after the third year of adopting a default budget, no town can continue to function with a budget with funding from three years ago. His was speaking primarily about the funding and hiring freeze at fire, police, and public works departments. Lydon has nearly four decades of firefighting experience, and has spoken at previous meetings in support of the town’s emergency services.

Lydon noted fire department staffing is not about convenience or tradition, but rather about speed, coordination and giving trapped people the best chance of survival. Staffing levels, he said, are driven by volume and response time, which is not theoretical, but rather what happens on someone’s worst day.

“Modern fire behavior has changed, but staffing still determines outcomes,” Lydon said.

“Fire conditions today become deadly faster than ever, due to modern furnishings and light-weight building construction. Every delay in stretching the line, ventilating a structure, and searching for victims allows conditions to rapidly deteriorate.”

Lydon said increased call volume means companies are not available as often, due to ongoing incidents that can extend response times. He commended the staff of the Alton Fire Department for their work in an ever-changing environment.

“It’s not just about putting out fires anymore,” Lydon said. “The EMS training and certifications included today are intense. Our lives are in their hands, literally.”

Lydon said when someone calls 911, they expect the department to be fully staffed, which requires adequate funding. He called on the budget committee to reconsider their position, and change the budget to fund the four positions taxpayers voted on last year.

He also asked the budget committee to look closely at how the overall budget is presented to the taxpayers.

“I don’t think it was explained very well during the election,” Lydon said.

Andrea Caruso said there are people who aren’t in that room — thousands of residents — who don’t understand the numbers. She said, starting with leadership, the public needs to be better informed about the true tax impact, as the “game of telephone” can lead to mistruths.

“We need to make sure we have some sort of public awareness that is made available in layman’s terms, for people who are not engaged here,” Caruso said. “Because if you spread one thing, it’s going to make my taxes go up $5 per thousand. People are going crazy, rightly so.”

Caruso said they can try to tell their neighbors, and inform them of truths, but over the past three years, there have been uninformed voters at the polls, leading to the proposed budget being shot down each time.

“If you have uninformed voters, which I believe you’ve had these last three years, you’re going to have the same effect,” Caruso said. “We have to learn from our mistakes here.”

The $10.2 million revised budget was overwhelmingly approved to be sent to the ballot, with only a handful of voters raising their cards against.

The election will take place from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., on Saturday, June 6, at Prospect Mountain High School.