As Cape Elizabeth voters prepared to vote on a school budget Tuesday, two local organizations were accusing each other of misleading voters.

Citizen Advocates for Public Education, a group of Cape residents dedicated to strengthening Cape schools, recently sent residents an e-mail claiming Cape For All, an organization advocating for spending tax dollars wisely, is misleading the public.

“Cape For All has embarked on a heavily-funded campaign of misinformation throughout Cape Elizabeth in order to influence the election and defeat the school budget,” the e-mail read.

Cape For All last week distributed a flier at the Cape Elizabeth Recycling Center, entitled, “Vote no, too high and don’t compromise on the school budget.” The group also sent laminated postcards to Cape residents.

The citizens advocacy group, in its recent e-mail, says Cape For All, through its flier, misrepresented facts, including the amount the Cape Elizabeth School budget will increase – 2.47 percent, according to the flier.

“In reality, Cape’s budget is only increasing 1.1 percent,” said Frank

Governali, the member of Citizen Advocates for Public Education who sent the e-mail.

“My concern is that in these days when people are nervous about the economy, their jobs, it is very easy to scare people into making decisions on wrong information,” Governali said. “People are very sensitive, and they should be.”

However, RuthAnne Haley, spokeswoman for Cape for All, said the group stands by its numbers. Haley said part of the problem with the claims of misinformation is that they do not take into account $200,000 the town would give to the schools under the budget going to voters.

In early April, the state informed the Cape School Department it would be losing $504,000 from its state subsidy. In order to make up for the loss, Cape officials planned to use money from the schools’ contingency budget, lowering it from $233,000 to $70,000, and transfer $200,000 from the town’s undesignated surplus to take a $363,000 chunk out of the loss.

“We are not anti schools as our opponents have claimed,” Haley said. “The fact is, however, that $200,000 needs to be paid back to the town somehow. I think our numbers are very solid.”

Haley said this budget season has been difficult and at times confusing because of fluctuations in state aid to schools.

The school’s Web site also has some discrepancies, according to Town Councilor Anne Swift-Kayatta. The Web site claims that the schools have been limited to an approximate 3 percent spending increase for the past several years.

However, Swift-Kayatta said, although the town has had a spending cap based on the consumer price index in recent years, the school department has been allowed to exceed it.

According to Swift Kayatta, the school department had an 8.1 percent increase in 2005, a 5.71 percent increase in 2006, a 3.93 percent increase in 2007, a 3 percent increase in 2008 and a 5.3 percent increase in 2009.

Also on the school’s Web site in the “budget at a glance” section, it states this year’s increase is $218,000, which contributes to a 0.6 percent increase in taxes.

The proposed school budget of $19.3 million alone translates to a 20-cent, or 1.6 percent, increase in the tax rate, according to Town Manager Michael McGovern’s budget proposal. However, when it is combined with decreases in taxes for municipal, county and Community Services, the overall tax rate increase drops to 0.6 percent, or 11 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation.

The municipal budget is at $8.5 million, a 3 percent decrease from last year.

“The more citizens involved and interested in the budget process, the better,” said Swift-Kayatta, who also chairs the finance committee. “It is important that people have access to accurate, relevant and complete information on Cape Elizabeth’s budget so that they can make informed decisions. Reasonable people can disagree and may well come to different conclusions, but the facts are the facts.”

The state recently announced that Cape schools would receive an additional $421,000 in federal money dedicated to special education. The schools will also be receiving $421,000 in federal money this year to offset cuts in state subsidies.

The referendum vote is scheduled for Tuesday. Voters will vote at the Cape Elizabeth High School from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.