FORT KENT, Maine — SAD 27 officials are concerned that residents going to the polls Tuesday could send them back to the drawing board by rejecting the proposed school budget.
During the annual budget meeting last week voters did approve the proposed $12.8 million fiscal year 2015-2016 budget by a show of hands. But the package must still pass a referendum vote by residents of the six member communities.
Some of those residents who are unhappy with the double-digit property tax increase the proposed budget includes, have taken to the streets and social media with an unofficial campaign to vote it down.
The proposed budget represents an overall 3 percent increase over spending from last year, but it includes a 14 percent increase to the local share thanks to losses in revenue of $321,000.
Those losses, SAD 27 chief financial officer Lucie Tabor last week said last week, stem from reductions in the state contribution to education and the withdrawal of Winterville from the school district last year.
Districtwide, the budget represents an average increase in the tax rate of nearly $2 per $1,000 of property value among member towns Fort Kent, Eagle Lake, Wallagrass, New Canada, St. John and St. Francis.
In Eagle Lake, where the budget would mean a near 20 percent tax hike on top of a 14 percent increase last year, some residents are demanding the board take another look at the numbers.
“A ‘no’ vote sends the district and the school board back to the table to get a little more creative and more efficient across the board to minimize taxes,” Dana Saucier of Eagle Lake said Monday morning. “A ‘yes’ vote keeps things as they are, which have reached the point of fiscal irresponsibility and are economically untenable for many of the citizens in our district.”
Saucier said he and “dozens of residents” have been passing out flyers showing exactly what the budget means to area taxes since last week’s budget meeting.
In St. Francis, the local parent-teacher association also has taken to social media, but to support the proposed budget, saying to vote it down could place at risk the $45,000 SAD 27 has budgeted to maintain grades pre-kindergarten through second at the St. Francis Elementary School for next year.
This spring, legislation was passed in Augusta that allowed the district to turn the building over to the town of St. Francis, which will use a portion for classes while exploring revenue generating options for the unused parts.
Ultimately, the fate of the budget rests on the decision of a majority of voters in all SAD 27 member communities, and not on the results of any single town.
District Superintendent Tim Doak agrees the budget’s impact on local taxes are significant, but said Monday it could have been worse and at a far greater cost to education.
“To continue the programs we have for students and staff, we need a ‘yes’ vote,” he said. “If the voters turn it down, the whole [budget] process starts over.”
The school board already cut more than $800,000 out of the budget initially proposed at the start of the process, he said. A budget with no property tax increase would require an additional $800,000 in cuts, Doak said.
“That is on top of $3 million in cuts we’ve made over the last two years,” he said.
Any additionals reductions in the budget would have to come from staff cuts, combining grade levels, increasing classroom sizes, reductions to athletic schedules or requiring students to pay to take part in sports or other extracurricular activities, Doak said.
“Everything would be on the table,” he said. “The scary thing is, with a ‘no’ vote you don’t know [how much more in cuts] will satisfy people — $300,000, $500,000 or $600,000 or $700,000? And will they still vote it down?”
No one wants to see children or education suffer, Saucier said.
“This is not an ‘us against them,’ this is about all of us,” he said. “We are just trying to do the right thing for our children at the same time doing the right thing for taxpayers. Can I pay my taxes? Yes, I can. But I know there are a hell of a lot out there who cannot.”
Doak agrees that some residents struggle financially, but said to make deep cuts to the budget could destroy the schools and, eventually, the community.
“If we get rid of our schools to help people with their taxes, you will not have a workforce or a town,” he said. “Nobody wants to lose their school, but nobody wants their taxes to go up [and] you can’t have both.”
Regardless of Tuesday’s vote, Doak said the time has come for the SAD 27 board to sit down and take a hard look at the future and the cost of education.
