NEWPORT – Because the SAD 48 board mistakenly counted abstentions among its members as actual votes, a $16.8 million budget will be sent back to voters for a sixth time.

The board, which met last week, counted abstentions as “no” votes. As such, it appeared the budget proposal did not pass and it was referred back to the budget committee for reconsideration.

The committee met Thursday night, ostensibly to come up with a new budget figure, but its members were quickly informed by Chairwoman Robin Duplisea of the counting error.

“We are bound to go by our district policy book and Roberts’ Rules of Order,” said Duplisea. “Therefore, the vote at the board level was miscounted.”

She explained that the budget vote, which is weighted by community population, was 400 yes to 128 no, but those no votes included abstentions. By eliminating the abstentions, decisions not to cast votes, the proposal passed by the required two-thirds margin.

“It is a vote and it will stand,” she said.

Although no further action was necessary by the budget committee regarding the bottom line of the budget, they deliberated changing some amounts in the individual accounts that will not affect the $16.8 million total. Ten accounts needed to be reduced, explained Superintendent William Braun, to offset an unexpected increase in district property insurance.

The consensus of the committee was to recommend those changes to the full board next Tuesday.

Board Chairman Ron Fowle, however, said the issue of the miscounting would be brought up again before the full board. “If someone that voted in the affirmative on the budget wants to rescind the vote, they can do it,” he said.

If the proposal is voted on again and fails, he said the budget committee will meet the same night to come up with an alternative proposal.

All this is to meet a deadline for March 9 voting by the six-town district on the budget, which is the sixth time a budget has been put out to referendum.

A large group of residents attended the meeting Thursday, many of them members of the Committee for Reasonable Taxation, which has consistently opposed the budget’s bottom line.

For more than an hour, residents and board members discussed the budget, the process and how to be more informative.

Theresa Bickford, who operates a jewelry store in Newport, said there was a tremendous amount of misinformation circulating about the budget. “The miscommunication is making people angry. I don’t feel I’m getting the information I need to make an educated vote,” she said.

Gary Jordan Sr. of St. Albans agreed. “If we are not getting facts and figures that are understandable to anyone, how can we make a fair and equitable decision?” he asked. “I was formerly a bank president and I find [the budget] hard to understand.”

Duplisea and Braun spent time trying to answer the individual questions and explaining the budget process to the audience.

“We are trying to give people what they want and still live within the guidelines we are required to follow,” said Duplisea. She cited a change in the way the budget booklet was printed last time that grouped similar cost centers to allow people to understand it better.

William MacLaren of Palmyra asked, “What happens if we vote down the budget on March 9 and then two more times? That will bring us past the end of school.”

Braun explained that the district will operate under the last budget presented to voters – $16.8 million – until June 30. “Then the budget will be null and void,” he said.