Latest news with #ElaineSistare
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Putnam budget proposal would raises tax bills by 10%
Putnam — The Board of Finance unanimously voted Monday to advance a 2025-26 budget proposal that could raise taxes by more than 10% for the average homeowner, according to local officials. The $33 million budget, which will be presented at a public hearing on Wednesday, April 16 at 7 p.m. at Putnam Middle School, adds an extra $200,000 to the Board of Education's original bare-bones school spending plan. The proposed budget calls for a $1.17 million increase for the school system, $196,000 for general government and bond debt, $58,900 for the Putnam EMS Ambulance Service, $2,900 for the library, and $4,400 for the police department's school resource officer program. Town Administrator Elaine Sistare said Tuesday that the new tax rate would be 17.9 mills — down 5.7 mills from the current year's rate of 23.6. However, town officials say homeowners will still see their taxes increase, due to the town's mandated property revaluation. Sistare estimated that median residential property owners with two median-valued cars will see their tax bills increase by 12% next year. If the budget passes, the town would need to raise an extra $646,000 in tax revenue. That figure would have been even higher, but the board decided Monday to recommend using $700,000 from the town's undesignated surplus fund and $550,000 in government bonding from the Capital High School Project to cover a portion of the town's expenditures. At the beginning of the meeting, Mayor Barney Seney warned residents that due to the revaluation, residential property taxes would go up no matter what we put in the surplus. 'We've done a great job financing the increases, and I think it's a fair budget. The schools get what they need, which I'm happy about,' Seney said at the end of the meeting. If the proposed budget passes, school spending would total $22.1 million. The Board of Education originally presented a $21.9 million budget. While the total represented a $976,000 boost — up 4.6% from the previous year — rising contractual obligations including health insurance, salaries, special education costs and energy expenses ate up the increase, requiring thousands of dollars of cuts throughout the district. The proposal called for the elimination of all permanent substitute teachers, the loss of two paraeducators, and the reduction of a full-time school psychologist and speech and language pathologist to part-time. Other adjustments included keeping vacant coaching positions unfilled and reducing professional development, software, classroom furniture, instructional supplies, and maintenance budgets. Board of Education Chairman James Purdon III told the Board of Finance on Monday that if the district received anything lower than the $21.9 million, the board 'would not know where we would be able to make the cuts.' 'We have cut, and cut, and cut,' Purdon said. 'We truly made every possible cut we could find.' Given the district's financial challenges, Board of Finance Chairman Dave Coderre said he was inclined to add $200,000 to the school budget. 'We've done a lot of studying of the board of ed budget. We've heard from a lot of people,' Coderre said. 'In other years we listen with a critical ear, but I think if you look at their budget, they hit some tough times with special ed and insurance.' At the end of the meeting, Superintendent Steven Rioux thanked the board for the additional funding. 'I just wanted to express my appreciation and gratitude for recognizing other needs of the school and some of the challenges that we're facing this year,' Rioux said. 'We will definitely use that funding very wisely and support the kids in the areas that need it the most.' During his remarks, Rioux noted that Monday's vote was 'just step one of the hurdle.' 'We still have to pass this referendum,' Rioux said.
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Putnam Zoom meeting interrupted by racial slurs and porn videos
Putnam — Local officials are reexamining live-stream protocols for public meetings after the Board of Selectmen and Mayor fell victim to a racist and pornographic 'Zoombombing' attack Monday night. Roughly eight hackers hijacked the Zoom portion of Monday night's selectmen's meeting, causing 50 seconds of confusion and chaos as they spewed racial slurs, played pornographic videos and blared loud music. The vulgar episode finally ended when the board voted to go into recess and shut down the Zoom. Town Administrator Elaine Sistare said the incident was reported to local police, who have opened an investigation and notified the FBI. Sistare said the perpetrators could be charged with a cybercrime, breach of peace or multiple offenses. 'Once we get more information from our IT people and the police, we'll bring it to the selectmen and see if they want to address this issue in regards to … any safeguards we can put in effect to prevent this in the near future,' Mayor Barney Seney said. This kind of attack, known as Zoombombing, spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic when bad actors began exploiting technology in new ways as the world moved online, according to the Bureau. The offenders, who either work alone or coordinate group attacks on virtual forums, search the web for public Zoom links to disrupt video conferences, municipal meetings and virtual classrooms with pornography, hate speech and threats. Sistare said the town started live-streaming meetings on Zoom during the pandemic. After the pandemic ended, the Board of Selectmen continued the practice to make meetings more accessible for the community. Aside from one instance years ago where an individual displayed images of guns, Sistare said this is the first time the town has experienced this kind of attack. 'It's a valuable tool,' Sistare said. '(It's) unfortunate that it can be abused, but but our goal is ultimately to make it easy and accessible for our (community) members, our town of Putnam taxpayers and others to legitimately join in our government meetings.' Sistare said meeting links are posted publicly on the town's website. While virtual attendees first enter a virtual waiting room before a moderator individually admits them into the Zoom meeting, Sistare said the town does not check names to verify the identities of participants. Sistare said the selectmen could decide to modify the town's Zoom settings to automatically disable the audio, video and screen-sharing abilities of participants. Audience members could request for the moderator to unlock the controls using the virtual hand-raising function. 'I think everything will be on the table,' Sistare said. 'We've got some measures that have been in place all along — we may tighten up the measures even more — but it's up to the Board of Selectmen and mayor to have a discussion about the potential changes altogether. … It is an unfortunate episode but we'll try to learn and improve from it.'
