Sparse crowd OKs SAD 29 budget

Houlton Pioneer Times Photo/Joseph Cyr
EMPTY SEATS — Only a handful of residents turned out Thursday for a pubilc hearing on the SAD 29 budget. The district budget meeting was held Monday with about 32 residents in attendance.
By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer
    HOULTON — A group of about 32 residents approved a $12,492,226 budget, Monday evening with little opposition.
    As presented, the SAD 29 budget for 2012-13 features an increase in spending of about $411,177 (3.4 percent) over the previous year. Jon Bither served as moderator for the meeting.
    “I am very pleased that the budget passed,” said SAD 29 Superintendent Mike Hammer. “I want to thank the budget committee for the time and energy they put in to educate themselves and the entire board regarding the details required to understand the budget.
    The many formulas, details and unknown factors involved with district budgets are difficult to absorb once a year, many times with new faces at the table,” he continued. “(Board member) Fred Grant does a great job as he understands the facts inside and out. I would also like to thank my staff for all the extra time and energy they put in at this time of year answering questions from the finance committee and digging into details of accounts.”
    Hammer added he was surprised that there were not more people at Monday’s district budget meeting.
    “A very light turnout like Monday night can mean a couple of things,” Hammer said. “One is that the people of the community have faith in their elected officials to be fiscally and educationally able. Or, two, (there is) apathy toward the process. I am in hopes that the members of the community will come out and validate the budget with a vote on June 12 and we will be able to truly feel that we have support for this budget.”
    Like most school districts, the SAD 29 budget has risen steadily over the past seven years. In the 2005-06 fiscal year, the total budget was $10,068,006. Only once during this seven-year span did the budget decrease. In 2008-09, the district’s budget featured a decrease of about $3,000 over the previous year.
    Because most school districts spend more than what the state says they should spend, additional local funds must be raised in many communities to balance the budget. In SAD 29, however, no additional local dollars have been sought for the past three years as the district has taken money from its surplus account to cover the additional local costs.
    Hammer said it was unlikely that the district would be able to continue this practice during future budget processes because the amount of money in “undesignated funds” has dipped to about $800,000. Each district is required to have 3 percent of its total budget in surplus in the event of emergencies.
    Houlton’s share of the required local effort and Adult Ed costs will be $2,215,030, an increase of $328,382 (17.4 percent) over last year. Littleton’s share of the budget will be $418,466, an increase of $67,476 (19.2 percent). Monticello’s share will be $331,723, an increase of $61,521 (22.7 percent). Hammond’s share would be $52,665, an increase of $9,893 (23.1 percent).
    Several members of the Houlton Town Council have gone on record to say that the school budget will result in an increase to the town’s mill rate.
    During Monday’s meeting, Houlton Town Councilor Sue Tortello attempted to reduce the school’s required local share by $200,000, stating the school district could choose to use a clause from the state that would allow the district to raise less than its full share, and yet still receive the full amount of state funds.
    “The required local share is a percentage, not a flat requirement,” Tortello said. “It will change as the EPS formula changes.
    Normally, the towns do not have a choice but to pay 100 percent of what the state says we should be paying for EPS to get 100 percent of state funding. Last year, and again this year, the state has offered schools the option to allow participating towns to pay less than their required local share without any loss of state funding.”
    The district took this option last year.
    “I do admit that it does not change the required local share in future years, but it does ease the tax burden this year,” Tortello said.
    In earlier sessions, the school board expressed reservations about using this clause since it would create a much larger jump in required local dollars next year.
    “We never know from year to year if they (the state) is going to offer this option,” Tortello said. “But this is not money you have to pay back. Though we can surmise what our local valuations might be next year, we really don’t know what EPS is going to turn out to be.”
    Tortello’s request to reduce the required local share failed by a vote of five “yes” to 27 “no.”
    Tortello also spent much of the evening asking the board why certain areas of the budget had increases.
    Resident Phil Bernaiche also implored the school board to consider making additional cuts in the future.
    “I live here, I pay taxes here,” Bernaiche said. “We all know that we cannot have everything we want. Other towns are cutting (their budgets). Something has got to be done. You have to cut your budget.”
    About $491,000 in cuts were made to the 2012-13 budget by the budget committee during the many workshop sessions, according to Hammer. Among the key reductions were two bus purchases, at a cost of $160,000; a $134,000 decrease to the maintenance account; and one Education Technician II was eliminated.
    Several projects, totaling $108,000, that were approved by the school board at the April meeting have been eliminated. Those projects included the purchase of a new freezer at Houlton High School; renovations to the girls’ locker room; replacing old and worn out school lockers in the junior high wing; upgrading bathrooms at Houlton Elementary School; and replacing cafeteria tables at HES and Wellington Elementary School.
    However, increases in a number of areas, including salaries, benefits and special education, as well as stipends for numerous positions, wiped out those cuts, resulting in the budget being 3.46 percent higher than last year.
    The district is anticipating a carry forward of $343,343 this year, which means the district did not spend all of the money it was allotted last year. That carry forward figure is considerably lower than previous years, where the figure was well over $1 million.
    The budget now goes to a public referendum vote on Tuesday, June 12 in each of the SAD 29 communities of Houlton, Littleton, Monticello and Hammond.