In the March 10, 2026 election, Lee voters, understandably upset that the increasing Oyster River Cooperative School taxes seemed to land disproportionally on them this year, voted against both the school budget and the town budget. The school budget passed anyway, carried by the votes from Durham and Madbury. NO prevailed for the Lee town budget, with voters opting for the $5.69M default budget rather than the proposed $6.09M budget, which was 7.0% higher than the default budget.
As the article states, rather than simply accept the default budget, the board availed itself of the option to try to pass another budget, this time asking to appropriate $5.93M, 4.3% above the default. As we are an SB-2 town, we had a second Deliberative Session on May 9, and election day today where NO won again.
I attended the May 9 Deliberative Session for a few minutes, but I didn't really follow the details of what was proposed for the modified budget. I supposed it doesn't matter much now that it failed.
The town has already announced the cut of the town-wide yard sale next year; the recreation commission usually covers the nominal expense of $50-$75 for printed maps of the participating residences. Similarly, I was told that the budgets of the Sustainability Committee and Technology Committee would be cut to $0 in the proposed budget. I don't know if that means the 2027 Made In Lee Artisan Fair will have to be skipped.
I'm not certain, but it appears that as these committee lines have been in the budget consistently over multiple years, they count as recurring, so should be included in the default budget. In any case, the board has wide discretion on how to juggle expenses when a budget fails.
If those items are any indication, many of the town-run public events will be cancelled, and the citizenry may come to regret their NO vote.
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