By Amanda Estes
Staff Writer
Some Cape Elizabeth officials fear they are approaching what may be the most challenging budget season in years.
That’s part of the reason why town Councilor Jim Rowe called a joint meeting between councilors and school officials last week. Largely avoiding talk of dollar figures, Rowe and council Chairman Mary Ann Lynch, School Superintendent Alan Hawkins, school Business Manager Pauline Aportria and school board members Rebecca Millett and Patricia Brigham generated a lengthy list of issues that will likely prove problematic when the 2008-09  budget hearings begin.
The purpose of the Jan. 23 meeting was to “introduce context to this year’s budget process early on,” said Rowe, who served on the school borad from 1999 to 2002. “There are people behind every decision; there are people affected by every decision.”
Growing economic pressures such as fuel costs and unfavorable housing and stock markets, will continue to hurt taxpayers this year, the group acknowledged.
The town’s assessor, Matthew Sturgis, cited little increase in property values in town when calling for a revaluation delay earlier this month, Rowe said. With the issuance of building permits on the decline and little construction to speak of, it will be difficult to counter inflation and fund new initiatives, he said.
Lynch, a member of the Cumberland County Budget Advisory Committee, said county taxes have increased nearly 8 percent. While some municipalities can factor in an increase in population, Cape Elizabeth, Portland and South Portland are “capped at artificially low levels” because their respective populations remain relatively constant or decrease, Lynch said.
“You just can’t keep going business as usual,” she said, adding she was the only member of the board to vote against the county budget.
Lynch also pointed to a citizen initiative to reduce excise tax as potentially problematic.
“People don’t realize that money goes to support our roads,” she said. “We don’t spend nearly enough on our roads.”
Teacher, police and firefighter contracts will all be terminating around the same time in the coming budget season and will need to be negotiated, officials said.
In addition, the town is facing the possibility of adding paid, full-time emergency personnel to the currently all volunteer fire and rescue departments.
Before retiring, Fire Chief Philip McGouldrick said attracting and retaining fire and rescue volunteers is a national problem. He said a recruitment and retention committee recommended starting out with one full-time paramedic firefighter who can do administrative work and assist the new chief.
Several capital projects will also be coming forward for consideration, town officials said. The list includes the town center intersection, Fort Williams improvements, Thomas Memorial Library upgrades, Hannaford Field projects, Spurwink Meeting House preservation initiatives, Shore Road pedestrian and cyclist paths and bond proceeds to allow the Cape Elizabeth Land Trust to purchase open space that will add to the town’s debt payments.
Hawkins said the school department will face several challenges this budget season. They are not all related to the School Administrative Reorganization Law, although the school department, like other schools across the state, is awaiting the verdict on LD 1932, emergency legislation that would postpone the school budget validation process until 2009.
According to the Maine Department of Education, the legislation passed the education committee and is moving on to the Senate and the House.
Hawkins said it was his understanding of the legislation that the council could chose to move forward with the referendum vote this year rather than waiting until the 2009-10 budget cycle.
Hawkins also questioned whether the school department could establish a reserve fund for staff retirements. Typically retirements benefit payments are funded by contributions from new hires, he said. But in the future, that balance will likely shift.
“We’re in retirement mode,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of people in their 50’s and 60’s.”
Dated technology continues to plague both school and municipal departments, Hawkins said. A monitoring system will be needed to examine the status of the systems’ major infrastructure such as servers, he said.
On Tuesday, Aportria said she and Hawkins plan to have the school budget ready by the end of next week. The budget will be presented to the school board at its next meeting on Feb. 12.
Aportria said the department expects to receive the preliminary state school subsidy numbers sometime in early February. Because of the school consolidation and resulting reduction in school funding, Aportria said she did not want to venture an estimate.
Although Cape Elizabeth will remain an independent district, it will still face funding cuts. According to the reorganization law, per-pupil rate for system administration will be reduced to 50 percent of 2005-06 rates; the per-pupil rate for facilities and maintenance will be reduced by 5 percent and special education and transportation funding will each be reduced by 5 percent.
Cape Elizabeth Town Manager Michael McGovern said department head budgets are due into his office by Feb. 14. McGovern said he will then review the budgets and his recommended budget will go forward roughly three weeks later to the town council for referral to the finance committee.