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Discontent over rising property taxes is high across Maine, but local officials are crashing into a heavy political reality: Deep cuts to school budgets are unpopular and difficult to find.
Only three school budgets failed at the polls Tuesday, even as voters statewide have made property taxes a central issue in this year’s gubernatorial race. Even in Lewiston, where voters supported a budget that cut dozens of school positions, the district will still see a roughly 9% budget hike over last year that raises the city’s school tax levy by 4.4%, according to the Sun Journal.
One of the three failures in Wiscasset may have had less to do with taxes than with a local scandal. Residents protested the district this month after school officials failed to report an assault in which a senior was charged in connection with choking a middle schooler.
“There’s a lot of controversy surrounding the school right now, and I think the vote was more of a reflection [of] that,” Town Manager Dennis Simmons said of the result.
Wiscasset’s school budget failed by just 12 votes on an Election Day in which only three school budgets failed across Maine. Inflation in the transportation sector is stretching municipal budgets, especially in places seeking new school buses and fire trucks. Meanwhile, a series of “unfunded mandates” — requirements from the state and federal governments that come without money — are a burden for the small neighborhood schools that dot Maine towns.
“The cost of education is hard to reduce with all the legislation in place that has parameters in which you need to run your school system,” Wiscasset Select Board member Pamela Dunning said.
While some expenditures are legally untouchable, like special education services and English language learning services, voters often prove unwilling to make cuts once they hear about possible impacts.
In Augusta, conservatives on the City Council began the budget season determined to push for small or no increases in the city’s school budget, citing property taxes. They backed off somewhat after the district said that might force the district to eliminate busing for the high schoolers.
“I literally almost had a heart attack” over the busing proposal, City Councilor Courtney Gary-Allen said at an April meeting. “If there is no bus to school, my child is not getting to school.”
The resulting budget, approved Tuesday, will force cuts on the city’s schools. But it will still result in a roughly 5% increase in the amount of taxes. Most school budgets that went to a vote Tuesday, including the ones in Lewiston and Augusta passed.
Those that failed, in districts based in Jackman, Phillips and Wiscasset, may face tougher electorates this summer. Unlike Tuesday’s high-turnout votes that coincided with major party primaries, off-season elections tend to draw in fewer voters and an older population.
Anger over taxes had fuelled gubernatorial campaigns on both sides of the aisle, with Republican frontrunner Bobby Charles pushing for dramatic tax cuts. Democrats have campaigned on massively increasing the state’s homestead exemption, which would shift tax burdens away from Maine homeowners and onto out-of-staters with property here.
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.