Bar Harbor voters OK $12.5M budget

BAR HARBOR – About 120 local voters adopted an annual municipal and education budget of about $12.5 million with little discussion Tuesday night.

The budget and related routine housekeeping measures were the only issues considered by voters when they met for a little more than an hour at the municipal building on Cottage Street.

According to Town Manager Dana Reed, the 2007-08 total budget represents an increase of about 3.3 percent over the current $12.1 million budget, which ends June 30. That percentage increase is the same as the 2007 Social Security cost-of-living adjustment, he said.

When county taxes and the town’s share of the Mount Desert Island High School budget are figured in, the town’s expenditures budgeted for the 2007-08 fiscal year is $15.2 million, $12 million of which is supported through local property taxes.