Rehoboth Select Board Backs Prop 2.5 Override on Eve of Tuesday Vote

REHOBOTH — July 14, 2014 — Rehoboth Select Board unanimously backs Proposition 2.5 override hours before Tuesday vote. All five members of the Board of Selectmen — Chairman Michael Costello, and Selectmen Joseph Tito, Susan Pimentel, David Madden, and Skip Vadnais — publicly declared support Monday for a $1.675 million operating override on Tuesday's ballot, the first such ballot question in Rehoboth in roughly 30 years. Town accountant Kathy Doan warned the board's $1.2 million stabilization fund cannot substitute — "once you use it, it's gone" — and resident Chuck Procopio reported that after working through the town warrant he could identify only $800,000 in cuts before reaching public safety. For a $300,000 home the override would raise the annual tax bill from $3,843 to $4,152. Finance Committee member Mike Degnan separately disclosed at the meeting that the board has not received audited financials from the Dighton-Rehoboth Regional School District since 2008, as required under MGL Chapter 71, Section 16A, and Town Administrator Jeffrey Ritter committed to requesting the missing records the following day.