Cape passes $29M budget (Printed May 18, 2007)
By Ward Peck
Editor
With a 4-3 vote, the Cape Elizabeth Town Council passed a combined $29.2 million budget for municipal, school and country spending, with all but $7.7 million raised through property taxes.
The budget, which takes effect July 1, represents a 2.9 percent or $825,000 increase of the current budget and translates to a 1.86 percent or 30-cent increase in the town’s anticipated tax rate from $16.16 per $1,000 of assessed value to $16.46. That tax rate is likely to change during the fiscal year following an update to the town’s property value assessments being conducted by the assessor, Matt Sturgis.
The three dissenting councilors, David Backer, Anne Swift-Kayatta and Mary Ann Lynch stuck to the end to a promise they made more than three years ago to limit spending to the rate of inflation, pegged at the beginning of the budget process at 2.5 percent and later revised to 2.8 percent. But in the final year of the three-year pledge, those councilors found themselves in the minority and unable to persuade at least one of the four other councilors to agree to their self-imposed spending limit.
While the $8.5 million municipal budget passed on Monday limited spending to $205,205, or 2.47 percent– less than both inflation figures, the school budget, which makes up nearly two-thirds of municipal spending, did not.
In March, School Supt. Alan Hawkins recommended a $19.2 million school budget, which would have increased school spending by 5.2 percent– more than twice the then recognized Consumer Price Index rate of inflation. Left out of Hawkins’ budget was more than $20,000 in additional spending he requested the school board consider adding to the budget for coaching positions and a full-time nurse.
Instead, the school board reduced Hawkins’ recommended budget by $255,000 to a growth rate of 3.8 percent.
The school board’s budget received a chilly reception from the town council, where it was supported by a single councilor, Sara Lennon, who indicated she would have supported the original 5.2 percent increase.
With three councilor’s entrenched in supporting an inflation-based budget and three councilors indicating a willingness to find a compromise solution, the school board returned to the council with a proposal to move nearly $100,000 of the fiscal budget and finance it over several years through borrowing, reducing their request to a 3.24 percent increase.
During that time the revised 2.8 percent CPI was released. Councilor Jim Rowe, a former school board member, put forward a compromise figure that would allow the school budget to grow 3.0 percent. The three percent increase combined with the increased borrowing reduced the gap between the school board budget and a council-supported budget to less than $44,000.
At Monday’s meeting, Rowe’s compromise achieved the support of three other councilors, Cynthia Dill, Council Chair Paul McKenney and Lennon.
But Backer, Lynch and Swift-Kayatta were unmoved.
“School expenditures have grown 26.25 percent over the past five years,” Swift-Kayatta said. “That 26.25 percent nominal dollar growth equates to a 10.52 percent growth in constant 2003 dollars; i.e., 10.52% more than inflation over the same period. Over the same period, enrollment shows a 1.3 percent decline; the number of regular teachers shows a 5.92 percent increase; and enrollment per regular teacher changes from 14.84 students per teacher to 13.83 students per teacher, a 6.8 percent decrease.
Swift-Kayatta as well as Backer and Lynch each cited the need to exercise fiscal restraint in the face of several recent and potentially future attempts to impose tax or spending caps at the state level.
“This is the first time in my six years on the council I will be voting against a budget,” Lynch said. While she said she would not support the budget, she praised the school board for delivering “in their view, a no-frills budget,” but said she was committed to keeping her promise.
Backer cited the high tax burden in Maine and said while the legislature has promised meaningful tax and spending reform, “with four to five weeks left in the legislative session, there is no reason to believe they will address tax and spending reform.”
“Instead,” Backer said, “[they are considering] school consolidation, none of which addresses the underlying tax and spending issues and will cause our costs to go up, not down.”
Backer said that in this environment, it was the council’s responsibility to reduce the incremental increases they can control.
Where the school department will find the $44,000 in council mandated cuts to the proposed budget increase will be discussed by the school board at a meeting on Tuesday (May 22) at 7 p.m. in the High School Library.
According to Hawkins, one of the proposals is to cut the two-year Cape Elizabeth High School Latin program, which will save about $26,000. The school board could also cut an education technician or other programs, Hawkins said.
Editor
With a 4-3 vote, the Cape Elizabeth Town Council passed a combined $29.2 million budget for municipal, school and country spending, with all but $7.7 million raised through property taxes.
The budget, which takes effect July 1, represents a 2.9 percent or $825,000 increase of the current budget and translates to a 1.86 percent or 30-cent increase in the town’s anticipated tax rate from $16.16 per $1,000 of assessed value to $16.46. That tax rate is likely to change during the fiscal year following an update to the town’s property value assessments being conducted by the assessor, Matt Sturgis.
The three dissenting councilors, David Backer, Anne Swift-Kayatta and Mary Ann Lynch stuck to the end to a promise they made more than three years ago to limit spending to the rate of inflation, pegged at the beginning of the budget process at 2.5 percent and later revised to 2.8 percent. But in the final year of the three-year pledge, those councilors found themselves in the minority and unable to persuade at least one of the four other councilors to agree to their self-imposed spending limit.
While the $8.5 million municipal budget passed on Monday limited spending to $205,205, or 2.47 percent– less than both inflation figures, the school budget, which makes up nearly two-thirds of municipal spending, did not.
In March, School Supt. Alan Hawkins recommended a $19.2 million school budget, which would have increased school spending by 5.2 percent– more than twice the then recognized Consumer Price Index rate of inflation. Left out of Hawkins’ budget was more than $20,000 in additional spending he requested the school board consider adding to the budget for coaching positions and a full-time nurse.
Instead, the school board reduced Hawkins’ recommended budget by $255,000 to a growth rate of 3.8 percent.
The school board’s budget received a chilly reception from the town council, where it was supported by a single councilor, Sara Lennon, who indicated she would have supported the original 5.2 percent increase.
With three councilor’s entrenched in supporting an inflation-based budget and three councilors indicating a willingness to find a compromise solution, the school board returned to the council with a proposal to move nearly $100,000 of the fiscal budget and finance it over several years through borrowing, reducing their request to a 3.24 percent increase.
During that time the revised 2.8 percent CPI was released. Councilor Jim Rowe, a former school board member, put forward a compromise figure that would allow the school budget to grow 3.0 percent. The three percent increase combined with the increased borrowing reduced the gap between the school board budget and a council-supported budget to less than $44,000.
At Monday’s meeting, Rowe’s compromise achieved the support of three other councilors, Cynthia Dill, Council Chair Paul McKenney and Lennon.
But Backer, Lynch and Swift-Kayatta were unmoved.
“School expenditures have grown 26.25 percent over the past five years,” Swift-Kayatta said. “That 26.25 percent nominal dollar growth equates to a 10.52 percent growth in constant 2003 dollars; i.e., 10.52% more than inflation over the same period. Over the same period, enrollment shows a 1.3 percent decline; the number of regular teachers shows a 5.92 percent increase; and enrollment per regular teacher changes from 14.84 students per teacher to 13.83 students per teacher, a 6.8 percent decrease.
Swift-Kayatta as well as Backer and Lynch each cited the need to exercise fiscal restraint in the face of several recent and potentially future attempts to impose tax or spending caps at the state level.
“This is the first time in my six years on the council I will be voting against a budget,” Lynch said. While she said she would not support the budget, she praised the school board for delivering “in their view, a no-frills budget,” but said she was committed to keeping her promise.
Backer cited the high tax burden in Maine and said while the legislature has promised meaningful tax and spending reform, “with four to five weeks left in the legislative session, there is no reason to believe they will address tax and spending reform.”
“Instead,” Backer said, “[they are considering] school consolidation, none of which addresses the underlying tax and spending issues and will cause our costs to go up, not down.”
Backer said that in this environment, it was the council’s responsibility to reduce the incremental increases they can control.
Where the school department will find the $44,000 in council mandated cuts to the proposed budget increase will be discussed by the school board at a meeting on Tuesday (May 22) at 7 p.m. in the High School Library.
According to Hawkins, one of the proposals is to cut the two-year Cape Elizabeth High School Latin program, which will save about $26,000. The school board could also cut an education technician or other programs, Hawkins said.
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