MAY 24, 2024
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Mailloux pursues another appeal Asks for review of of earlier ruling in Gavin Knupp case
PHOTO COURTESY LOIS GOETZKE PHOTOS COURTESY OF NICK DENNY AND BETHANY HOOPER/OC TODAY-DISPATCH
GRADUATION PARADE Members of the Stephen Decatur High School’s Class of 2024 were celebrated Wednesday with a parade along the Boardwalk.
Tyler Mailloux hopes high court will overturn a lower court ruling that said the state’s attorney was correct in pursuing charges in circuit court. — Page 14
Abbott flips, budget flops
Name game continues
Comissioners’ second vote on school budget cuts millions
Bowing to public opinion, the City Council voted in April to name Third Street Park “Third Street Park.” Now, maybe not. — Page 10
Worcester County Commissioner Caryn Abbott was the swing vote last week in the county’s 4-3 approval of all but $1 million of the board of education’s $107 million budget for the next fiscal year.
She switched sides this week, as another 4-3 vote OK’d a scaled-back plan that cuts the teachers pay increase and restricts other funds from being used to make up the difference. — Page 3
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OC Today-Dispatch
MAY 24, 2024
MAY 24, 2024
OC Today-Dispatch
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Abbott reverses position on budget Motion cuts public school funding after supporting Fiori’s stance last week By Charlene Sharpe Associate Editor (May 24, 2024) A week after voting to provide the school system with $1 million less than requested in the coming year’s budget, county officials on Tuesday voted 4-3 to reduce that figure to just under $105 million. Commissioner Caryn Abbott told her peers on Tuesday she’d had second thoughts about her vote to support providing the school system with about $106 million. Her motion to reduce the Worcester County Board of Education funding to the level that would provide staff with 4% raises rather than the 6% raises discussed last week passed with a 4-3 vote. Those in opposition said the county had the money to fund the school system at a higher level. “We have the money to fund this,” Commissioner Eric Fiori said. “Expenses have gone up.” During a budget work session last week, the Worcester County Commissioners voted 4-3 to fund the school system at $1 million less than the roughly $107 million requested. While Abbott, Fiori, Commissioner
Joe Mitrecic and Commissioner Diana Purnell supported the motion, which was expected to provide the school system with funding to give 6% raises, Commissioner Chip Bertino, Commissioner Jim Bunting and Commissioner Ted Elder advocated for a more modest budge† that would have allowed for 4% raises and a step increase. At the start of this Tuesday’s budget work session Abbott said she’d reconsidered her position. “I’ve had a long week since last Tuesday. I felt I did not make the right decision for the county. I want to say that I think we need to stay within our budget and not spend money we don’t have,” she said, making a motion to reduce funding to the 4% level, which would provide the school system with $104,980,244. Mitrecic objected. He said that providing a 4% cost-of-living adjustment was not enough. He said the county had millions in its budget stabilization fund. According to staff there is $13 million in the fund now and the county expects to end this current fiscal year with an $11 million surplus. “We could possibly have $24 million sitting in the budget slush fund,” he said. “It’s a slush fund. It’s taxpayer money we’re holding that you
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do not spend… You want to do this that’s fine but let’s give the $11 million back to the taxpayers. Let’s drop the tax rate. If we’re worried about the taxpayers lets drop the tax rate. To not give those raises to people who make this county run is wrong.” Fiori agreed. “I was the one who started the argument about these teacher raises,” he said. “I started it and what I found after hundreds and hundreds of hours’ worth of research is yes leadership at the board of education has not followed their financials to a T.” He said changes needed to be made but that money shouldn’t be pulled away from teachers. He said the commissioners had made their point to the board of education by reducing funding by $1 million. “We cannot penalize our teachers,” he said. “I think this is wrong.” Bertino said that if teachers were getting a 4% raise and a step increase, they were actually getting a 6.5% increase, as a step was about 2.5%. He added that earlier this spring the commissioners also agreed to spend more than $2 million in the coming year to buy down the health insurance increase for employees so they would not bear the brunt of increased costs. See ABBOTT Page 6
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