SCARBOROUGH, Maine — Voters on Tuesday narrowly defeated Scarborough’s proposed $42.3 million fiscal year 2015 school budget.
According to the town clerk, the vote was 1,169 to 1,013, with 1,257 voters indicating on a separate question that the proposed budget was too high.
The town has 15,319 registered voters.
The Town Council must now reconsider the school budget and hold two readings and a public hearing before it is sent out to another voter referendum.
Last year, the education budget went to three referendums before it finally passed.
The Town Council has the power to approve or deny the total school budget proposed by the School Board, but cannot control line items. When a budget is approved by the council, the School Board can then more accurately adjust line items to account for overall changes demanded by the council.
The Town Council approved the failed school budget May 9 after cutting more than $500,000 from the proposal at the last minute. Councilors Ed Blaise and James Benedict dissented because they believed a proposed 3.5 percent tax increase was too much.
Those alterations followed a nearly $1 million cut recommended by the School Board finance committee just a week earlier.