Politics
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Maine voters approved almost every school budget that was up for a vote on Tuesday, giving some school boards a reprieve after last year’s tough budget battles.
Last summer, a series of taxpayer revolts led several districts to hold repeated budget votes, with some lacking a budget until November. This year, more modest proposals and high turnout appear to have helped most school budgets through. Of at least 18 districts that held budget referendums this week, all but one voted to pass them.
Kennebunk-based Regional School Unit 21 was among the districts that secured budget approval. Its $64.8 million plan sailed through on Tuesday. Last year, taxpayers rejected two budget proposals, eventually assenting to a $61.1 million budget. This year’s increase is smaller than the one rejected last year, despite rising costs.
Superintendent Martin Grimm, who started his job just days after district voters rejected a second 2025 budget proposal, said this year’s budget followed intensive auditing for potential savings in the urging of local officials. Tuesday’s proposal passed with more than 60 percent of voters approving. Last year, the first budget plan was rejected by about 55 percent of voters.
“My hope is that we’ve built some trust in the community after a couple rocky years,” Grimm said of the result.
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High turnout — particularly among Democrats — in Tuesday’s primaries likely boosted support for budgets across the state. In 2025, many budgets were voted on in special elections, which tend to draw little attention. Those who do turn out for off-year elections like last year’s tend to be older. Many live on fixed incomes and have no family members in local school systems.
In Kennebunk, Kennebunkport and Arundel, the towns comprising RSU 21, nearly twice as many voters turned up on Tuesday than in the June 2025 vote. Budget passage is typically a win for liberals, while failures typically mean taxpayers want reductions.
This year, conservative budgets inverted that pattern in some parts of the state. In Augusta, voters approved deep cuts by a wide margin despite a campaign by city Democrats who sought to reject the budget for being too low. That budget is set to cut several teaching positions, eliminate Latin language education and require teens to pay to play sports.
In Lewiston, voters agreed to a budget that could cut dozens of positions after rejecting a pricier proposal in May. In a non-binding survey asked at the ballot box Tuesday, a majority of voters said the budget was “too high,” and about one in six said it was “too low.” Less than a third of voters who responded to the survey said the proposed level was “acceptable.”
The lone budget to fail that was tracked by the Bangor Daily News was in the Jackman-based MSAD 12. There, school officials asked voters to approve a roughly $3 million budget, driven up by staffing issues the superintendent said have forced the district to spend extra on contracted services.
Declining student enrollment and rising property values in the northwestern border area also meant a reduced state subsidy.
Daniel O’Connor is a Report for America corps member who covers rural government as part of the partnership between the Bangor Daily News and The Maine Monitor, with additional support from BDN and Monitor readers.