By Joyce Carroll

For The Colchester Sun

Colchester voters will be asked in March to approve a $10.8 million budget. Final approval of the fiscal year 2011 spending plan occurred last Tuesday at the selectboard’s regular meeting. The budget represents a 3.6 percent increase over the current year’s budget, with 1.8 percent of that amount to be raised through property taxes. The town’s Joan Boehm told the board and audience that as a result, the homeowner of a $200,000 home could expect to pay an additional $25 in annual taxes.

The Australian ballot budget vote, set for March 2, will also include three ballot items seeking continuation of capital expenditures as they pertain to transportation, technology, and communication. Moreover, several of the town’s nearly two dozen articles will appear on the March 2 ballot as well.

These include an opinion article offering guidance to the state legislature over its proposal to shift teacher retirement obligations out of the state’s general budget and into the education fund over a four-year period.

Town voters will also be asked via Australian ballot to approve preliminary negotiations between the town and the Catholic Diocese over the purchase of Camp Holy Cross. Select board member Marc Landry stressed that these would be preliminary discussions.

The camp itself has yet to be appraised, and consequently its selling price is an unknown at present. Voters will decide the outcome of other articles at Town Meeting, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Monday March 1.

In other business, the selectboard scheduled a public hearing for Feb. 9 on a charter change that if approved by voters and the state legislature would allow the town to impose a local option tax. The tax, which could be levied as a percent of sales or through a rooms and meals tax, could help cover the cost of buying Camp Holy Cross, should that purchase come to be, while funding other town initiatives as well.  If approved, the town would follow in the footsteps of South Burlington and Williston in imposing a tax on goods or services beyond the state’s sales tax. Voters would be asked to approve the charter change in April, with final approval resting with the state legislature.

The selectboard additionally authorized Town Manager Al Voegele to begin the lengthy application process with the state to create a special taxation district for Severance corners. Known as Tax Incremental Financing, the plan would offer tax incentives to developers completing projects in that area. Voters would have the final say, most likely during the fall elections, pending state review and approval.