Brattleboro town meeting representatives passed a nearly $16 million town budget Monday night. That’s about $600,000 less than the one approved at the town’s representative town meeting in March.
The initial budget was overturned in a town wide referendum in April. Supporters of the recall said rising taxes had become a hardship.
They objected in particular to payments on a planned $14 million fire and police facility upgrade approved in 2012.
The new budget did not include the police and fire project. But Brattleboro select board chairman David Gartenstein said the issue hasn’t gone away.
“We’re going to continue our public process and try to determine how the needs of the police and fire can best be met within a budget that the town believes it can afford,” Gartenstein said.
Brattleboro is the only Vermont town that has a representative town meeting form of government.
