CORNISH — Voters sailed through budget items during Tuesday’s Town Meeting, leaving most of their debate for two energy-related articles.
Many of the spending articles were level-funded, with the largest increase coming in the highway budget of $699,452, which was up $106,000 from the current year. Selectboard member Scott Baker attributed a good part of the increase to salaries. Voters accepted that explanation and a handful stood to compliment the highway department for their work on the roads.
The majority of the increase for the $108,809 police department budget was also attributed to salary increases.
“The bulk of it is to get our salaries in line,” with other towns in the area, Cornish Police Chief Doug Hackett said. “Trying to find someone for what we’re paying is getting harder all the time.”
The Cornish Energy Committee was behind the two most-discussed articles on the warrant during the 3½-hour meeting. The first asked voters to send a message to state and federal officials to enact carbon-pricing legislation.
“This type of legislation would put a price on oil and gas at the source,” explained Joanna Sharf, chairwoman of the energy committee, adding that people would see a rebate if companies increase their prices in response. “No one would be paying out of pocket because you’d be getting this dividend. It has been shown to grow the economy in other countries.”
Emmett Cass disagreed.
“I love how we love to hate the one thing that’s made our lives so great today and that’s oil companies,” he said, adding that people could not trust the government to return the dividends to residents.
A voice vote to approve the article was close, so a hand count was taken. It passed 57-42.
The second asked the town to allow solar panels on residential homes to be exempt from property taxes. Sharf said that the solar-generated energy that homeowners do not use goes back on the grid and benefits the community.
Exempting residential solar panels from being taxed was unfair to the people in town who cannot afford to put them on homes, Bill Wall said.
“Why should we subsidize the people who put them in?” Wall said.
Residents who have solar panels said that while they did not install the panels for the tax break, having one helps encourage other people to install them.
The article passed, 93-31, in a paper ballot vote.
Town officials said attendance was about average.
Town Meeting started on a high note, with Selectboard Chairman John Hammond honoring Leland Atwood, who is stepping down after serving as Cornish’s supervisor of the checklist for 42 years, beginning in 1978. Hammond also announced an anonymous $30,000 donation that was recently made toward the town’s George H. Stowell Free Library expansion plans.
In all-day balloting, Selectboard member Scott Baker was unopposed for a three-year term, as was longtime Treasurer Heidi Jaarsma. Voters also approved a zoning amendment that expands the town’s definition of a cottage industry, 140-46.
Liz Sauchelli can be reached at esauchelli@vnews.com or 603-727-3221.
