South Portland adopts $42.8 million school budget

What a difference a week makes.

Anybody who attended last week’s South Portland City Council budget workshop might be forgiven for presuming tension between the council and the school board.  Compared to that meeting, however, Monday’s Council meeting was a veritable love-in.

Before it was done, the City Council, which had originally asked the school board to bring them a “flatline” budget, agreed to a 1 percent increase, to $42.8 million. The budget now goes before voters at the May 10 referendum.

Throughout the meeting, councilors and school board members pledged a new era of detante, promising, or at least openly hoping for, increased openness and communication between the two bodies.

Mayor Rosemarie De Angelis sought to smooth the waters by describing a recent visit to her home by School Board Chairman Ralph Baxter, Jr., when his was the first lap accepted by her newly adopted cat.

“That left me with some trust in him,” she said. “That has really helped me to have one-on-one conversations with Ralph, to really better understand, and to then bring the council and the school board together.

“I think the more we share information in a willing, and positive and agreeable way, the better the relationship we will have as we move forward,” she said.

“We’re married with no possibility of divorce,” agreed Councilor Tom Coward. “We must trust each other and I’m perfectly happy and comfortable with that concept.”

It seemed the only person not all-aboard the Kumbaya Express was Albert DiMillo Jr., who once again assumed his now-familiar Quixotic role, charging at budgetary windmills.  Twice during the meeting, DiMillo expressed resignation to his fate, acknowledging that he was unlikely to sway any minds. Still, the retired CPA rose to his feet, and gamely gave it a try, leveling a lance at his favorite target, the school’s surplus and reserve funds.

“The fact is, you’ve cumulatively collected $5.9 million more in taxes than you’ve expended, through April 13,” he said.  “Those aren’t my numbers, those are audited financial statements. 

“You make believe I’m making it up, and say how negative it is, but those are just that facts,” said DiMillo. “We have a surplus other school districts would love to have.  You are collecting taxes you don’t need to collect.”  

Superintendent Suzanne Godin has said the school is purposely setting aside funds for the next two budget cycles, to prevent a hit to local taxpayers when federal stimulus and jobs bill money runs out.

“That’s a pretty smart move,” said Councilor Tom Blake.  “The alternative is to borrow it.  We’re paying that up front to soften the burden down the road.”

That was the same philosophy used to justify raising from taxation an addition $1 million for the high school renovation bond. That, said DiMillo, is an unnecessary move, given the school department’s existing surplus. He claimed, without rebuttal, that adding that set-aside into the budget means it actually is up 3 percent, not the 1 percent trumpeted by the school board.

However, whether 3 percent or 1, Blake said, school spending is barely keeping pace with inflation, at best, and falling behind at worst.

Others said spending pays more than it costs, even considering when that South Portland spends $11.7 million more than the state will match under its Essential Programs and Services funding model.

“We’re not a minimum school department, we’re not a minimum city,” said school board member Rick Carter. “To talk about the fact that we’re spending over the minimum that the state says is needed for public education, well, I hope to God I never live in a community that thinks that’s OK for public education.” 

“Our kids need a great education,” said Carter. “That’s not a want, that’s a need for the future of our kids and the future of our community.”

And while DiMillo pleaded with the City Council to, “not steal from the taxpayers again, like you have for the last six years,” it fell to school board member Susan Adams to strike what seemed to be the tone for the evening.

“The school department cannot be separated out from the city,” she said. “It’s all one thing. Think of this city as one.  Unify, don’t divide.”