Editor:
Under the state school consolidation law, the school budget approved by the town council must be submitted to an up or down vote by citizens. The vote will be held on June 10. The law mandates the vague wording of the ballot question, which will not say what the budget increase or tax increase will be. If the voters reject the budget, the council will need to approve a different budget, which will then be submitted to the voters again, and so on.
The budget increase approved this year by four Councilors is 4.6 percent (resulting in an overall 5.4 percent tax increase.) I opposed the 4.6 percent increase as being too high. Next year, our student enrollment will fall by 55 students to roughly the same level as in 1999, and is expected to drop even more thereafter. Yet we now have 25 more school employees than we did in 1999. In this economy, every extra dollar of taxes is a burden for many households. Monthly Social Security benefits rose only 2.3 percent this year. While Cape Elizabeth is overall a relatively well-to-do town, 19 percent of Cape homeowners in 2006 received Circuit Breaker (income-based tax burden relief) help. We have excellent schools, and will continue to do so. Even without the full 4.6 percent increase, spending per student in both actual and inflation-adjusted dollars will be at an all-time high.
The June 10 ballot will have a second, advisory question asking voters whether they think that the 4.6 percent school budget increase is too high, or too low. (If a 4.6 percent increase is just about right, your “yes” vote on question one will tell us that.) Citizen response to the second question will help us determine what the next budget proposal should be if the June 10 proposal fails.
These are important questions on which reasonable people can disagree. Please vote on June 10.
Anne Swift-Kayatta
Cape Elizabeth Town Councilor