MEXICO — Residents rejected all but two budget items during Tuesday’s secret ballot referendum, Town Clerk Penny Duguay said Wednesday morning.

Of the 17 warrant articles, only the solid waste budget and the town’s insurance budget were approved by voters. The $235,467 solid waste budget was approved by a 246-222 vote, while the $50,000 insurance budget was approved by a 240-223 vote.

The defeated items included a $901,530 public safety budget, which voters rejected 295-190.

Prior to the election, the Board of Selectmen proposed the town raise and appropriate $901,530 for public safety, while the Budget Committee recommended $669,368.

For the Police Department, selectmen proposed $400,161, while the Budget Committee recommended $180,000.

The difference between the board’s figures and the Budget Committee’s figures stemmed from the Budget Committee allotting no money for the Police Department and raising $180,000 to pay the federal government back for a loan it awarded the town to pay for the expenses of a fifth police officer.

“That’s what they decided to do, on a 4-3 vote,” Madigan said to residents at a May 28 public hearing. “They want to not only eliminate the whole Police Department, but also give the federal government $180,000 that we had been collecting for the last three years to pay for one of our officers.”

Albert Aniel, who is on the Budget Committee, said the committee voted the way they did as a means of protesting against the selectmen’s budget.

“A lot of us on the Budget Committee feel that when you compare 15 years ago, when we had one or two police officers to now, when our population has dropped by half and 40 percent of the town is elderly,” Aniel replied to Madigan at the May 28 public hearing. “I don’t see a lot of rampant crime going on. We came up with the proposed budget number as sort of a protest against the selectmen, asking them and the townspeople to think, ‘Do you really need the police force that you have?’”

Voters also rejected the $114,973 recreation budget, 331-158.

In other business, voters re-elected Selectmen Byron Ouellette and Reggie Arsenault to three-year terms, defeating challenger James McDonald.

The vote totals were: Ouellette, 345; Arsenault, 305; and McDonald, 238.

mdaigle@sunjournal.com