Monday night started the process of voting on the Town of Westport’s budgets for the upcoming fiscal year. The process is completed by the Westport Representative Town Meeting - which continues the quintessential New England tradition of governing a municipality by elected, volunteer representatives. The RTM is broken into 9 district, which all report to the full meetings for collective votes. This week’s budget meetings are scheduled through Wednesday to assure adequate time is given for the historically time consuming process.

The focal point of tonight’s meeting was the acceptance of the town’s proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year, which was voted and approved by the meeting by the end of its adjournment at around 10:30 PM. The Town budget will come in at around 77.1 million dollars, a 2.21% increase over last year’s budget. The budget including the Board of Education will be 218.5 million dollars, which puts the total increase at 2.58%

Board of Finance member Brian Stern described a positive financial outlook for the Town, despite the pandemic and superstorm experienced in 2020. He stated that he believes the Town will be “within 1% of its budget” by the time the year’s done on June 30th. Fellow BoF member Seth Braunstein reminded the group that the mill rate has not changed in nearly four years, and stands low compared to similar communities - such as neighboring Weston’s 32.37 mill rate. Member Jim Foster concluded that Westport is in a “very strong financial position.”

“…it embarrasses me, and I’m very sorry” said Wendy Batteau, District 8, when she made a public comment on the Human Resources line item, which was cut. “We cut their budget” she began, then saying “I don’t know how we expect them to handle much more increases.” before concluding “it does not cast a good light on us.” She was backed up my Arline Gertzoff, who said she was “beyond impressed by how the people in human services function “

Lou Mall publicly commented on Earthplace line item when it was up for discussion, stating he would abstain from voting for their first budget increase in several years due to their ability to fundraise, unlike other line items such as the aforementioned Human Resources budget. The increase then passed.

The Westport Transit District was preparing for an over $100,000 cut to their budget after the Wheels2U program failed to thrive under pandemic conditions. However after the rallying of many of the RTM members, the line item was voted on to be restored back into the budget - saving the program. Lou Mall, District 2, was the only no vote in restoring the funding to the program. The RTM members applauded Peter Gold’s voluntary work on the Transit District, and described the Wheels2U program as an asset to community members, not necessarily a savings to the Town.