Mayor Paul Coogan is asking the city council to hold a special meeting tomorrow night to rescind its vote to fund a new Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School and approve a referendum vote in April for voters to weigh in on paying the city’s share of the $293 million construction project.
In his veto letter to councilors, Mayor Coogan says he supports the construction of a new Diman, but the council’s vote last week was not in order based on a city ordinance that states any debt incurred by the city of over $5 million dollars must be approved by voters.
Mayor Coogan is asking the council to approve a referendum vote for April 11 that will include asking voters to pay for a new Diman through the passage of a tax debt exclusion, resulting in higher taxes.
Approving a debt exclusion to fund Diman may be a challenge. Voters in 2018 voted to increase their taxes to pay for the new BMC Durfee High School. They will begin seeing their taxes increase to pay for the new Durfee beginning later this year.
If voters reject the debt exclusion referendum, the Diman school committee can seek a district-wide vote seeking to approve the project. Somerset, Swansea, and Westport officials have given their approval to fund the new school.
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