LAMOINE – Local voters who cast their ballots this week in a school budget validation vote rejected a proposed 2008-2009 education budget that had been approved days before at the annual open town meeting.

The ballot vote was 175 in favor of the proposed $2.3 million budget and 302 opposed. The 477 votes cast represent 35 percent of the 1,363 registered voters in Lamoine, according to town officials. At an open town meeting on May 21, nearly 90 voters had approved the proposed education budget.

The proposed school budget was 35 percent higher than the current 2007-2008 school budget, according to Lamoine Administrative Assistant Stu Marckoon.

With the rejection by voters, school officials will have to revisit the budget. Marckoon said Thursday that another vote likely will have to be held. If one cannot be held before July 1, when the town’s new fiscal year begins, the proposed budget will go into effect until another budget is first approved and then later validated by the voters, he said.