Lamoine Voters Reject School Budget: Anti-validation Vote Means It’s Back to The Drawing Board

Thursday, May 29, 2008, The Ellsworth AMerican

LAMOINE — Overturning the approval given last week at Town Meeting, Lamoine voters Tuesday rejected the $2.3-million school budget in a follow-up validation vote.

The validation vote is a new step. This second vote is stipulated by the school consolidation law approved by the Legislature last year.

The budget would have translated into an estimated 34 percent to 38 percent property tax increase, according to Stu Marckoon, Lamoine’s administrative assistant.

The rejection means the School Committee must develop a new budget and bring it back to voters at a town meeting. Another validation vote then will follow.

“This is not unexpected,” School District 92 Superintendent James Boothby said Wednesday.

He said the challenge now is to develop a budget that the majority of voters will accept.

Thirty-five percent of the voters turned out Tuesday for the validation vote and rejected the budget 302-175. Nearly 90 voters had approved the budget at the open town meeting May 21.

Voters at the town meeting last week had the opportunity to ask questions and hear explanations for the increases, Boothby said.

The validation vote, however, is not preceded by any meeting or discussion. Voters simply go to the polls and vote on the school budget.

“That begs the question,” Boothby said, “did everybody understand the reasons for the increases? Were they voting on the facts, or were they voting on expressed concerns that might not have accurately portrayed the reality of the situation.”

Boothby said the process gives the School Committee another opportunity to make its case to the community.

“We may end up having a public hearing,” he said.

The new law anticipates this turn of events. In cases where the school budget is rejected at the validation stage, the law states that the town should operate under the last proposed budget submitted by the school board, which, in this case, would be the one voters just rejected.

But that is only if the town has not voted and approved a new budget by the time the new fiscal year begins July 1.

Boothby said he and the School Committee are going to work to have a final spending plan in place by that date.

“If at all possible,” he said. “It’s going to be a lot of work.”

Boothby said the School Committee will discuss the matter at its regularly scheduled meeting Monday.

On May 21, voters approved the budget at a town meeting following very little discussion. The budget reflects a $250,000 cut in state subsidy due to declining enrollment and increasing property valuation.

Under the state’s school consolidation law, that vote must be affirmed in a validation vote, which took place during daylong polling Tuesday.

The school budget is up 7.2 percent over last year with the majority of increases coming from special education costs, up 28 percent, student transportation, up 15.6 percent, and operation and maintenance, up 10.5 percent, Boothby said.

In addition, the town last year had the benefit of $185,000 carried over as a balance forward from the prior year. There is no such cushion this year, Boothby said.

He said the valuation of the community is increasing at a rate higher than the state average. That, combined with a decrease in the number of students, resulted in the reduction in general purpose aid, Boothby said.

In an attempt to find more money, the School Committee reduced the principal’s position from full-time to four-fifths time. The committee also cut library staff support from two days to one day; reduced nursing services from two days to one day, and reduced the music teacher’s position from full-time to four-fifths time.

But those savings were more than offset by an 18 percent increase in special education costs and an 11 percent increase in spending for electricity as well as other utilities, Boothby said.