Wiscasset selectmen approved the warrant for fiscal year 2020 on April 9. The budget committee on Monday passed all the warrant articles except the School Resource Officer, which members voted against, 3-2. Selectmen voted for the SRO, 5-0.

The budget, if passed, would increase the town’s mill rate by 1.94 percent, an increase of 1.44 percent over last year. It passed, 4-1, with Bob Blagden voting against it. He left the building before the signing of the warrant began.

Blagden expressed concern about the Parks and Recreation budget, which is $790,288, with anticipated revenues of $440,000 for memberships, programs and special events. Blagden said that in the years he has been on the select board, Parks and Recreation revenues have never reached the level anticipated. He proposed language that would stop funding the department if it didn’t meet its revenue projections. Treasurer Vernice Boyce said that because revenues come to all the departments at different times, and in the case of Parks and Recreation, a large amount of its revenue comes in the summer for camps and childcare, toward the end of the fiscal year. She said it is not possible to run a department without knowing there are funds available, and most of the department’s budget is personnel.

The selectmen had voted on each budget item last week, so this was a final look before it went to the printer for the election in June. The selectmen voted to correct the dates for the semi-annual tax payments from Oct. 23 and April 22 to Oct. 25 and April 24, with the stipulation that the town office be open on those Fridays. They also decreased the interest rate for late taxes from a proposed nine percent rate to eight percent.