A budget with more than a dozen jobs eliminated in the Gorham School Department will now go to voters next Tuesday, after it was approved Tuesday by the Gorham Town Council.

No members of the public commented Tuesday on the schoool budget, which will help keep the tax rate essentially the same next year as a result of a push from town councilors to avoid passing increased fuel and food costs on to residents.

Total school expenditures, including adult education, is $29,677,716, a 3.1 percent increase above this year. Several administrative positions, three teachers, and eight educational technician positions are just some of the positions eliminated.

On the municipal side expenditures are at $11,782,227 up 0.8 percent above this year. The town eliminated the town engineer, compliance officer, and reference librarian at Baxter Memorial Library.

Tuesday, along with choosing 1st District congressional candidates and deciding on a $29.7 state bond request, Gorham voters will be asked to give a yes or no vote to the school budget. The so-called “budget validation” referendum is a requirement of all districts spelled out in the school consolidation law.

While expenses in the school and town budgets are up over this year, an increased tax base is expected to keep the tax rate at $16.03 per $1,000 of valuation – a 3 cent hike.

The school’s share of the total budget won’t increase the tax rate, and the town’s share is decreasing the tax rate by a penny, but Cumberland County’s share of the tax rate is up 4 cents. Gorham Town Manager David Cole said it is possible that when property valuations are finished at the end of the summer the tax rate could come in flat at $16.

A 3 cent increase to the tax rate would add just $6 to this year’s $3,200 in property tax on a $200,000 home.

Few residents attended the meeting to speak out on the budget. One, David Kent, spoke out against the increase in the cost of city trash bags, which are to go up 25 percent in November, or whenever the current bag supply runs out. The cost of a 15-gallon bag will go from $1 to $1.25 and a 30-gallon bag from $2 to $2.50.

Margaret Marchand, a Baxter Memorial Library trustee, and Mary Collins, a library volunteer and president of Friends of Baxter Memorial Library, both spoke out against the cut of $13,926 at the library. Included in the town layoffs is Joanne Gordon, the library’s reference librarian and in-house Gorham history buff who has worked at the library for 23 years.

Marchand said there were 9,713 reference questions last year and losing Gordon would be significant.

“We will feel it,” Marchand said.

Collins read two letters written to the council by local youth who use the library regularly. Both letters praised borrowing books over purchasing them, a point Collins seized on by saying library patrons tend to demand more services during hard financial times, when library budgets are often being cut.

In addition to eliminating Gordon’s 26-hour-a-week, $31,777 position, another four hours of library assistants work has also been cut. According to director Pam Turner, the library will have to cut back its operations by opening three evenings a week instead of four.

While there have been cuts in services before, this is the first time in the 15 years Turner has been at the library that she’s had to lay someone off.

“It’s happening in a lot of communities in the area,” Turner said about proposed cuts to library services, but added that it’s not just library budgets that are feeling the brunt of a slowed economy.

The Gorham School Committee slashed the budget that was originally proposed by nearly $1 million after the Town Council asked the panel to stick to a flat tax impact for the coming year. Nineteen full-time positions were cut, though five of the positions were about to be vacated by resignations. Several part-time positions were also cut. Significant cuts were made in the food services and nutrition department. The school department cut the $115,000 business manager’s position; the $96,000 curriculum coordinator, the $58,000 transportation director, and the $81,631 coordinator of the Extended Teacher Education Program, a post-graduate program with the University of Southern Maine for aspiring teachers.

“It’s a budget that is reacting to the economy, both locally and in Augusta,” said Gorham School Committee Chairman James Hager in brief remarks at Tuesday’s meeting.

Leighton O’Connor, the school’s business manager whose position was cut, is looking across Maine and New Hampshire for a new job. He said Tuesday morning that there are few opportunities for positions like his.

“I’m disappointed to be losing my job, but those are the conditions here,” he said, adding that he thinks education should be a higher priority in funding.

Despite the cuts made to the School Committee’s original budget, Gorham Town Councilor Phillip Csoros worked to whittle away another $1.3 million Tuesday night. Csoros said he looked at all the school budgets since 2004 and there has been a 30 percent increase in spending. The 3.1 percent increase next year is coming despite an actual reduction in school enrollment.

“I think it’s a trend we just can’t sustain,” Csoros said. Csoros and Council Vice Chairman Matthew Robinson both pointed to new schools to be built in coming years that will hit residents with significant tax jumps.

Council Chairman Burleigh Loveitt agreed with the additional cuts in principle, but said they would cause chaos. Csoros was the lone man standing for his amendment, but Robinson quickly moved to make a less significant cut in an effort to even the school’s budget increase with the town budget increase at 0.8 percent. Robinson’s amendment failed as well.

Csoros later attempted to cut just over $100,000 for a new administrative position that would bridge a perceived communication gap between the planning and code enforcement departments and pick up the slack from the $52,125 compliance officer’s position that was cut. That amendment failed, but the council appeared to be open to reworking what the money would be used for.

In addition to the compliance officer’s position being cut at Town Hall (a position recently held by Ephrem Paraschak, who left Gorham to be town manager of Denmark just before his position was brought to the chopping block), Tim Braun’s town engineer position was also cut. The position paid $54,506 and public works will pick up some of the slack from the loss of that position, but most of the services will be contracted out.

A CLOSER LOOK

Gorham polls are open Tuesday, 7 a.m.-8 p.m.

Ward 1 – Middle School, Weeks Road; Ward 2 – Gorham Municipal Center. Wards have recently changed. Call the Town Clerk’s office with questions at 222-1670.