Voters at the annual town meeting Saturday voted to override the LD 1 tax cap but defeated a proposal to allow gravel mining in Thurston Park.

Town Manager Daniel L'Heureux told voters they needed to raise almost $82,000 more from property taxes than the LD 1 formula allows in order to fund the selectmen's proposed municipal budget for 2009-10.

The main reasons are the increase in E-911 dispatching, because of the state-mandated reorganization of regional centers, and expected decreases in state subsidies, he said.

If voters approved raising the tax-cap limit, L'Heureux said, the municipal budget still would not cause an increase in the tax rate – currently $10.20 for each $1,000 of assessed valuation. How the school budget will be affected by the new state-mandated regional school unit is still unknown.

Opponents argued that taxes should be held down when many residents are losing jobs and having trouble paying their bills. Those in favor of increasing the limit said if people want town services, they need to pay for them.

Although the debate was evenly divided, the tax-cap limit was overridden by a 3-to-1 margin, 103 in favor to 35 opposed.

Selectmen defended a proposal to sell sand and gravel from Thurston Park as a way to generate revenue, but the idea was defeated on a voice vote. No more than 5 acres of the 393-acre park would have been affected.

Only one other of the 40 articles was turned down. For the second time, voters refused selectmen funds to install video cameras at the transfer station, by a counted hand vote of 29-31.

On the two articles on which selectmen and Budget Committee recommendations differed, each board won one. Voters took $2,100 of the Recreation Committee's request for $3,300 for soccer goals and team benches out of the town's surplus, as selectmen advised, rather than accepting the Budget Committee's recommendation to take the entire amount from the recreation reserve account.

However, they gave the Albert Church Brown Memorial Library in China Village the $4,500 recommended by the Budget Committee, rather than the $4,000 requested and recommended by selectmen.

The South China Library also received a $4,500 town appropriation.