Rehoboth Selectmen Cut Department Budgets, Deficit Still Exceeds $1 Million

REHOBOTH -- July 30, 2014, Rehoboth Selectmen trim department budgets across the board as a seven-figure deficit persists. The Board of Selectmen met July 30 with a dozen department heads to negotiate line-by-line spending reductions, aiming for 20 percent cuts across most operating accounts, though several departments had little left to give, the town accountant's only discretionary line was $1,500 for office supplies, and her budget was left essentially untouched. The board declined to reduce the $125,000 Reserve Fund, with members warning "we're cutting so thin that we're going to be short somewhere." The most striking figure of the evening: Rehoboth pays $57,681 annually in tuition and transportation to send two students to Tri-County Regional Vocational Technical High School in Franklin, $27,816 in tuition and $29,865 for Bloom Transportation to carry them to a Seekonk staging area. A prior School Committee vote reduced the town's school assessment by $153,273, narrowing the remaining deficit from roughly $1.7 million to roughly $1.5 million. The board closed by unanimously appointing Dr. Richard Panatosky as the town's animal control volunteer through June 30 of the following fiscal year.