Wayland Voters Approve $4 Million Tax Reduction

Just over 800 Wayland voters -- 818 to be exact -- Thursday night approved taking $4 million from free cash to fund the FY12 budget, thereby reducing the amount to be raised by taxes by the same amount.

The motion for Article 3, which was a petitioner-sponsored article, called for an additional $4 million to be taken from Wayland's free cash account in order to reduce the surplus and provide tax relief.

After two amendments to Article 3 failed -- one changing the amount to $2.25 million and the other changing the amount to $3.3 million -- voters overwhelmingly voted in favor of the article that, in its early form, was one of two articles that led to a Special Town Meeting in the first place.

The results of the four articles heard at Special Town Meeting are below:

Article 1: Enable and fund electronic voting at town meeting through calendar year 2014 (motion made this article a resolution) - Passed by a voice vote.

Article 2: Amend Chapter 19 of the Town Code: Require tax rate public hearing - Passed over by voice vote on a motion by Donna Bouchard. Bouchard, one of the petitioners on the article, said the suggestions petitioners had received up to Special Town Meeting were too extensive to incorporate into an article motion. Petitioners had been generally pleased with helpfulness of town officials in working on the article.

Article 3: Amend FY2012 Budget Funding Sources (sponsored by petitioners) (motion set amount to amend the budget by to $4 million) - Passed by voice vote after two amendments failed (see above).

Article 4: Amend FY2012 Budget Funding Sources (sponsored by Board of Selectmen) - Passed over by voice vote on a motion by Tom Fay. The passage of Article 3 rendered Article 4 moot.

Wayland Patch live blogged Special Town Meeting. To review our moment-by-moment recap of the meeting, check out the archived blog.