05/28/08

Town Council adopts budget; school spending increase of 4.6 percent will go to citizen vote

By a 4-3 vote, the Town Council on May 27 adopted a $30.7 million overall municipal budget for 2008-09.

The adopted budget includes a School Department budget of $19.7 million, up 4.6 percent over this year. The school budget is subject to a citizen validation vote to be held June 10. (click here for related story).

The approved budget also includes a Town budget of $8.8 million, up 3.4 percent over this year. The Community Services budget of $1 million is up 10 percent over this year's, and Cape Elizabeth's share of the Cumberland County assessment, also at $1 million, is up 7.9 percent over this year. The approved budget also includes $232,000 for the state's homestead exemption contribution, down 3.33 percent from this year.

Before approving the budget, councilors voted 4-3 to restore to the Town budget some funding for the Arts Commission. The 2009 budget proposal originally did not include the $3,000 line for the Arts Commission, but some councilors said they were so impressed with testimony from commission members, and from the arts community, that they thought some level of funding should be restored. "While I don't believe that the commission should be exempt from our significant budget pressures this year, I do believe that vaporizing the entire budget may be an overreaction," said Councilor Jim Rowe, who was chairman of the council's Finance Committee this year. He said he believed he may have underestimated the effect the commission has had on the community. Voting against the added funding were councilors Anne Swift-Kayatta and David Backer, and Chairman Mary Ann Lynch.

It was a divided council also that passed the overall municipal budget at the special meeting held May 27. Nearly all councilors called it a compromise budget, particularly the $19.7 million figure approved for school spending.

The school budget is $263,000 less than the $19.9 million budget approved by the School Board in March.

"It's not a perfect budget. Not a perfect budget by any means," said Lynch, who voted in the majority along with councilors Paul McKenney, David Backer and Cynthia Dill. Nearly all the councilors who voted to approve the budget indicated they were not pleased with a 4.6 percent increase for school spending, but that they settled on the compromise funding to move the budget forward and out to public hearing and vote.

"We could have seven different opinions here. I know everybody feels strongly," said McKenney. He said, however, that he felt it was important to give up some personal positions in order to move the community forward.

Voting against the budget were Anne Swift-Kayatta, Jim Rowe and Sara Lennon. Swift-Kayatta said she stood firmly by the 4.3 percent overall spending increase target established by the Finance Committee, based on the consumer price index. "Tonight's proposed school budget increase is a 4.6-percent increase, and likely exceeds the increase in many Cape Elizabeth citizen's incomes, particularly those on fixed incomes," Swift-Kayatta said.

Nineteen percent of Cape Elizabeth residents take advantage of the state's income-based, circuit-breaker program for tax relief, she said. "About one-fifth of Cape households were looking for relief because they obviously felt their property taxes were a burden to them," Swift-Kayatta said.

Rowe said he also supported the 4.3 percent limit. "In our enthusiasm to provide a safe community with the best facilities, programs and yes, schools, I don't think we can abandon those in our community for whom property taxes are problematic," Rowe said. "I just don't think public policy can do that," he said.

The adopted budget will add 88 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation to the current tax rate of $16.46 cents, an increase of 5.4 percent.

Also voting against the budget was Councilor Sara Lennon, who strongly advocated the 6-percent increase in school spending proposed by the School Board. "School expenses grow faster than inflation," she said. "The yardstick that we use to measure school funding increases must be different than the one we use to measure for business," Lennon said.

She said the tax difference between the council's school budget and the budget approved by the School Board amounts to approximately $50 per year for the owner of a median home. "It seems reasonable to me to expect to pay about $50 more a year to allow our schools to continue to do business as usual," she said, adding that the increase does not propose new materials or programming. "It simply allows the school to continue to offer what they currently do," she said.

Lennon said that less funding for schools is in opposition to the will of the people, evidenced by recent Cape votes to support school building renovations, and against state referendums for caps on spending and on property tax. "I strongly urge the council to set forth the 6-percent budget as requested by the School Board and let the people speak," Lennon said.

One thing all councilors did agree on was to encourage Cape voters to participate in the school budget validation vote to be held June 10.

Under the state's new school consolidation law, Maine citizens have the opportunity to approve or disapprove the school budget approved by the local governing body.

It marks the first time Cape Elizabeth voters will be able to directly say whether they approve or disapprove what the Town Council has adopted for school spending.

"The privacy of the voting booth will be a great equalizer," said Councilor Backer. "I urge every voter to exercise his or her democratic right," he said.

The validation ballot will ask whether voters approve the school budget approved by the Town Council on May 27.

A second, advisory question, will ask whether voters believe the school budget adopted by the council is too high or too low. If the budget fails, it will need to go back to the council, which will then need to set a different amount out for validation. Knowing whether voters think the amount is too high or too low will guide them in their decision, and two councilors on May 27 pledged to follow the outcome of the advisory vote.

Councilors urged voters to answer both questions, regardless of whether they vote for the budget or against.

The validation election is scheduled for June 10 in the High School gym, along with the state's primary and referendum election. Absentee balloting is underway at Town Hall, and ballots for the validation vote are expected to be available May 28.