The Scarborough Town Council will meet July 15 to consider its next steps in getting a 2015-16 school budget approved after town voters on Tuesday rejected a second spending proposal.

The vote was 3,584 to 496 against a proposed $43.3 million school budget for the fiscal year that started July 1. The rejected spending plan was up $1.3 million, or 3.1 percent, over the $42 million budget for 2014-15. On a non-binding advisory question, 2,047 voters said the proposed funding level was too low, 1,838 said it was too high and 177 said it was appropriate.

Town Manager Tom Hall said he plans to recommend a budget amendment at next week’s meeting, and he expects the council to take some sort of action to move the town toward a third validation referendum as soon as possible. What the amendment will be, however, remains to be seen in a town deeply divided over school funding.

“Folks are still trying to figure out what (Tuesday’s) vote meant and what the possible paths forward are,” Hall said Wednesday.

Voter turnout was high for a school budget vote, with 26 percent of the town’s 15,500 registered voters casting ballots. Absentee ballots accounted for 1,051 votes, surpassing a record 888 absentee ballots cast during the initial June 9 referendum.

While Scarborough has repeatedly rejected school budgets in recent years, communities in southern Maine more typically pass school budgets in low-turnout elections.

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Under state law, Scarborough’s 2014-15 school budget will remain in effect until voters approve a 2015-16 spending plan, Hall said.

Tuesday’s outcome was expected following the June 9 referendum, when the vote was 1,719 to 1,408 against a $43.8 million school budget that was up $1.8 million, or 4.3 percent. In that case, the response to the advisory question was 1,761 too high, 619 too low and 710 just right.

Under the initial budget proposal, the property tax rate for both municipal and school services would have increased 87 cents or 5.78 percent, from $15.10 to $15.97 per $1,000 of assessed value. That would have added $261 to the annual tax bill on a $300,000 home.

With a $500,000 reduction approved by the Town Council, the tax rate would have increased 72 cents or 4.75 percent to $15.82 per $1,000, which would have added $216 to the same tax bill.

Last week, Scarborough officials learned that the town will receive $4.6 million in state education aid this year – $884,890 more than expected and nearly the same as last year, according to the Maine Department of Education website.

Town officials developed the 2015-16 school budget with a conservative $3.8 million aid estimate, in part because Gov. Paul LePage and the Legislature were so late in passing a biennial state budget.

The additional state aid has been earmarked for property tax relief, so the Town Council would have to decide to spend it otherwise.


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