The Cape Elizabeth Town Council stuck to a council imposed spending cap when approving the combined town and school budget Monday night. Slight increases were given on both the town and school sides for population growth.

This decision followed a contentious budget season in Cape, which brought out droves of parents, teachers and students testifying the need to provide the schools with more money.

The combined budget for all town and school services totals $28.4 million. The budget approved by the council includes a spending increase of 3.91 percent for the schools and 3.87 percent for town services. The original council cap was 3.4 percent with allowances for population growth.

Property owners will now pay an additional 24 cents for every $1,000 of property value, a 1.5 percent increase over last year’s tax rate. That is less than half the current rate of inflation, Cape Elizabeth Town Manager Michael McGovern pointed out.

McGovern said he is satisfied that the tax increase is reasonable. “Any year that tax increases are less than inflation, that’s a good year,” he said.

Some residents are not happy with the council’s decision to give the schools less than the almost 7 percent requested by the school department.

Nancy Marshall moved to Cape last year from Williamsburg, Va., and has grandchildren in the school system. “I’m very sorry to see that a majority of the council was unable to see their way clear to support that budget,” said Marshall. “Next year it will be even worse.”

Marshall agreed with councilors Cynthia Dill and Mike Mowles who supported increasing the school budget more than was approved by the council.

Dill compared the school system to a car with its service light on. “You can ignore it, but you’re not saving yourself any trouble later on,” she said.

Both Dill and Mowles voted against a budget amended by the other five councilors in phone discussions and one-on-one meetings before Monday’s vote. An additional $93,000 was added to the 3.4 percent cap for school spending based on a 21 student increase from 2005 to 2006.

The increase was calculated using $4,440 as the cost per student. School Board Finance Chair Rebecca Millett maintained that the per pupil cost is $9,100, not $4,440. “We don’t know where that number came from,” said Millett.

Millett said the school board divides the number of students into the budget, which yields the per pupil cost.

Millett was disappointed in the bottom line. “I was hoping they would have made a bit more of an adjustment.”

Councilor Paul McKenney said he wanted to give the schools more money, but he compromised on the draft because it had the best chance. “The most effective budget is the one that has the most support,” he said.

Prior to the meeting, councilors met one-on-one working to draft budget figures acceptable to a majority of the council. Council Chairman David Backer presented the proposal, supported by five councilors, Mary Ann Lynch, Carol Fritz, Paul McKenney and Anne Swift-Kayatta, which allotted the town an additional $38,000 based on an increase of 25 new houses from 2004 to 2005.

Mowles followed Backer’s proposal with a proposal of his own. He supported increasing spending by 4.95 percent for the schools. There was no support for Mowles’ proposal and it died without any discussion.

Dill said though she was grateful that councilors were compromising on the budget, she still felt the councilors’ proposed budget was inadequate as it applied to the schools. “It’s just not enough money,” she said.

Swift-Kayatta, Lynch and Fritz publicly stated their opposition to spending above the cap, compromised when it came to increases in population. The original pledge made in September 2004 made allowances for population growth. Swift-Kayatta said the increases are consistent with the pledge she and four other councilors made in 2004.

Lynch said she was holding the line on spending because breaking the pledge would only “fuel the tax cap movement. It will put our school and other services at extreme risk in the future,” she said.

Backer reminded the audience that Maine is one of the most heavily taxed states in the nation if not the most heavily taxed. “We have to bear some accountability for what that tax burden is,” he said.

Backer said that though Cape doesn’t spend as much on education as their other communities, he is “satisfied they are spending and taxing enough.”

The superintendent’s original budget complied with the 3.4 percent spending cap. But, after relaying the cuts to services, including professional development, staff positions and furniture replacement, the overwhelming support from the school constituency encouraged the superintendent to redraft a budget that reinstated the cuts and added some services and positions, including another counselor at Pond Cove.

Fritz said she felt like the schools were receiving enough money and the cap wasn’t a threat to services. “There have been some exaggerations about the devastating impacts on the schools,” she said.

Fritz said Cape student performance indicates the quality of the school district. “Our students get into all the best schools in the country,” she said. “I don’t think the sky’s the limit on spending, we have to have some control.”