Budget set in Scarborough

Some funding restored to nonprofit organizations

The Scarborough Town Council voted 6-1 Wednesday evening to adopt a $70.1 million budget for the next fiscal year, up 2.89 percent from this year.

The lone holdout was Councilor Karen D'Andrea, who backed the parade of nearly 20 citizens who, at an April 27 public hearing, stumped for greater school spending.

"We almost take better care of our public works trucks than we do our kids in the schools," said D'Andrea.

The council voted to follow the lead of the finance committee, which earlier cut $225,000 from a request by the school board to increase school spending by $545,000. The school budget, now at $35.1 million, went before voters at the Tuesday referendum, held at The Current’s deadline. Go to www.keepmecurrent.com for election and referendum results.

Factoring out anticipated revenue over the coming year, the Scarborough school, municipal and county budget would require $46.4 million to be raised in property taxes. According to Town Manager Tom Hall, the tax rate in Scarborough, "subject to verification," would climb to $12.99 per $1,000 of property valuation, a jump of 36-cents.

In other words, a home valued at $300,000 - "about the average in Scarborough," said Hall - can anticipate an accompanying tax bill that is $108 greater than last year.

The total assessed value for the town, based on the condition of property as of April 1, is expected to increase $15 million, Hall said. Any variation will change the tax rate, which is not finalized until the tax commitment is set by the town assessor in late July.

In Wednesday's voting, councilors made just two changes to recommendations put forth by their three-member financial committee. They voted to restore donations to outside nonprofit agencies, which were slated to be cut to zero, from $75,000 spent this year.

Councilor Michael Wood had suggested the cut during financial committee deliberations. At Wednesday's meeting, he was quick to point out that he personally donates to many of the agencies affected by the change.

"I put my money where my mouth is," he told the audience. "What I struggle with is putting your money where my mouth is."

However, the council voted unanimously to set this year's donation to $71,000, down $4,000 from last year and more than $11,000 below this year's agency requests. Councilors agreed to let the finance committee decide how to divvy up the donation.

In what was later described as "largely a political gesture," the council also voted to cut the Higgins Beach bathhouse project, saving $300,000. Because construction would have been paid for with money from the sale of bonds, payments on which would not have come due until the next fiscal year, the cut had no impact on this year's budget.

Although most councilors voted for the budget, few seemed completely satisfied with it.

"Is it a great budget?" asked Councilor Ronald Ahlquist, rhetorically. "I don't think so. But I think we put together a good budget for bad times."

The $35.65 million school budget was also approved last week, subject to voter approval at the polls Tuesday. Though Scarborough schools would spend $567,534 more under next year's budget proposal than in the current school year, rising costs mean some educators would still end up unemployed when the new fiscal years starts July 1.

At Thursday's school board meeting, the final three positions were lopped, bringing total jobs cuts to 17.6 full-time equivalent (FTE) positions. The final cuts included the loss of a high school English teacher ($50,000), a K-2 guidance councilor ($50,000), and all foreign language studies from Grade 7 ($30,000 for a 0.6 FTE position). The remaining $95,000 savings is realized in an 11th-hour notice from Anthem that insurance cost would come in less than expected.

In addition to the final three position cuts agreed to on Thursday night, other jobs cuts in the proposal include: one homeroom teacher; one physical education/health teacher; an a 0.57 FTE ed tech at the middle school; one homeroom teacher, one foreign language teacher, and a 0.2 FTE phys ed teacher at Wentworth; three classroom teachers, one support staffer, and a 0.1 FTE art teacher at the town's three elementary schools; a K-8 special education teacher and a 0.4 FTE "GATES" teacher at the high school; a 0.7 FTE substitute caller; three custodians and three maintenance workers. The remaining cuts come from so-called "reductions by phase."

Last year's budget battle resulted in the loss of 23.1 jobs, making the Scarborough School Department more than 40 jobs lighter than it was two years ago, when the annual budget was $35,084,868.