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04/30/09
(updated 05/01/09)
School budget, with .6-percent tax rate increase, will go to validation vote
Voters on May 12 will decide whether to validate a $19.3 million school budget for 2009-10, one that will mean a .6-percent overall increase in property taxes. The school budget was adopted by the Town Council in a special meeting April 30.
The council voted 4-3 to send the school budget as presented by the School Board, to the voters.
The council vote generally reflected the positions councilors expressed after a public hearing on the 2009-10 municipal budget April 12. At that time, three of the six councilors present said they would support the school budget with the .6 percent overall increase in property taxes, and three said they would favor either a lower tax increase or no tax increase at all.
Councilor Paul McKenney, the only councilor who did not attend the public hearing, voted against the .6 percent increase April 30, but it was Councilor Penny Jordan's change in position that swung the council vote.
"I really grappled with the decision," Jordan said, saying she understands the financial challenges currently faced by our community, our state and our nation. "Initially as I thought about it I believed the zero-increase is what should be sent to the voters. But as I thought about it and as I grappled a lot, I thought about what was the intention of the referendum process, and that referendum process is about sending the work of the School Board to the community," Jordan said.
Councilors David Backer, David Sherman and Sara Lennon also voted for the school budget as presented by the School Board. Council Chairman Jim Rowe, Councilor Anne Swift-Kayatta and McKenney voted against.
The school budget itself proposes a 20-cent rise in the tax rate, an increase of 1.6 percent. However, combined with decreases in taxes for municipal, county and Community Services, the overall tax rate increase proposed for 2009-10 is .6 percent, an increase of 11 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation.
Nearly all councilors, regardless of vote, said they would prefer to send a budget to voters with no tax increase, but they echoed Jordan's inclination to let the electorate decide. Councilor David Backer repeated his position that he was "not excited" about a tax increase, but that wanted to give voters the opportunity to weigh in on the School Board's budget.
Councilor David Sherman stood by the School Board's recommended budget as he had April 12, adding he thought it was reasonable to ask a modest increase in taxes to support a budget that the board had put so much work into. Councilor Sara Lennon agreed, saying she believed taxpayers were willing to do their part to support the schools.
The School Board re-worked its budget proposal several times since it was first submitted by Superintendent Alan Hawkins. The $20 million spending plan proposed to the board in February would have added 4 cents to the tax dollar, but federal stimulus funding announced by the state in early March resulted in a no-tax increase budget. Later in the month, however, state officials announced that Cape Elizabeth would lose more than $500,000 in anticipated general purpose aid to education.
As a result, the Town Council voted to transfer $200,000 of undesignated funds to the school's undesignated fund balance, and the school budget gave up more than $160,000 of contingency funds. The remaining $140,000 of the shortfall is proposed to be made up through taxes.
Councilor Chairman Jim Rowe again said he opposed a .6 percent tax rate increase, but repeated an offer he made after the April 12 hearing for a .3-percent compromise tax increase budget. McKenney, who had said he could not justify a tax-rate increase in light of the current recession, said he would also support a compromise if the votes were there.
Councilor Anne Swift-Kayatta repeated her no-tax rate increase stance, citing decreased costs in fuel and debt service for the School Department, as well as decreased enrollments, and a consumer price index that has also fallen, to -0.4 percent. "Given that we can achieve a flat tax rate and still give the school budget an increase, in a time of falling enrollment, I do not see a compelling need to give the schools an even bigger increase in order to fund average salary raises of over 5 percent," Swift-Kayatta said.
The $19.3 million budget figure is approximately $700,000 less than the budget adopted by the School Board in March. The difference represents federal stimulus funds that will be reported in a separate revenue fund. "Yesterday we received information that the (state) did not want us to use the federal stimulus funds that we're receiving as part of the general budget," said School Department Business Manager Pauline Aportria. The budgeting does not affect the proposed tax rate, Aportria said, but the accounting for the revenue and the accounting for its expenditure will be reported in a separate account.
Councilors also spent time discussing a $421,000 supplemental stimulus grant Cape Elizabeth is slated to receive for special education purposes. The funds are earmarked for short-term supplemental programs, said Superintendent Alan Hawkins, and officials are still working on how they will appropriately use the money.
Budget validation election May 12 at Cape High School
The school budget validation vote will be held from 7 a.m.-8 p.m. Tuesday, May 12, at Cape Elizabeth High School. Applications for absentee ballots are available on this Web site.
The ballot, as it did last year, will include an advisory question asking voters whether they believe the proposed school budget is too high, too low, or acceptable.
Here is the text of the ballot, also approved by the council April 30: Do you favor approving the Town of Cape Elizabeth school budget for the upcoming school year that was adopted at the latest school budget meeting of the town council?
YES ___ NO ___
Advisory question:
I find the school budget adopted at the April 30, 2009 Town Council’s school budget meeting to be:
TOO HIGH _____
ACCEPTABLE _____
TOO LOW _____
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