While annual budgeting conversations are winding down in South Portland and Cape Elizabeth, things are coming to a head in Scarborough. Here’s what’s happening in your world today if you live in any of these three towns:

Budget battle

The Town Council and the Board of Education in Scarborough will get their first head-to-head meeting on the budget tonight when finance committees from the two groups meet in a special workshop session.

After setting a 3 percent cap on new expenditures in January, a majority of councilors have said they will reject the proposal of school Superintendent George Entwistle, which was initially announced to include a 10.6 percent increase, to $41.4 million. Entwistle has since backed off that number. When presenting his budget to the town finance committee Tuesday, he said $1.34 million had been carved off the top, reducing the budget hike to 6.98 percent. At last night’s public budget hearing, attended by about 60 residents, the increase was announced at 6.64 percent.

However, after the workshop, Entwistle refused to say where the cuts have come from, saying only that “the specifics are still being worked out but we feel comfortable we can get it down to this number.” School Finance Director Kate Bolton also would not say where the cuts were coming from, although she did say, “There are not jobs being cut; there are no cuts in programming.”

Even so, about a dozen people spoke against the school budget at last night’s hearing. Even though Entwistle’s latest pass has reduced the projected tax increase on a the median home from $525 to $420, few seemed impressed.

“When their taxes go up that amount, our senior citizens and other people have to find that from someplace,” said Town Council Chairman Ron Ahlquist after the meeting. “They told us last year was a correction year and yet, here we go again. Now, for the first time, people are scared, I think.”

Ahlquist said the council intends to hold the school board’s feet to the fire on the 3 percent guidance, even though that was issued before the state announced it was cutting Scarborough’s subsidy by $1.27 million.

That should make for an interesting session tonight.

Cape cash

Following last night’s presentation by school Superintendent Meredith Nadeau of her proposed $22.5 million budget – up 3.5 percent, largely due to a new $300,000 mandate to fund part of teacher retirement pay from local funds – the Cape Elizabeth Town Council will turn tonight to other matters.

The financial committee will consider a proposal from the town’s Future Open Space Planning Committee to add one penny to each year’s tax commitment and dedicate that money to open space preservation. If 1 cent had been added to the tax rate for fiscal year 2012, the committee said, it would have raised $16,530 at cost of $3.18 per median home, valued at $318,600.

Following the finance committee meeting, the full council will meet to set a public hearing on the budget, then reconvene as the Directors of the Museum at Portland Head Light, to consider giving up Fresnel-style lens once used in the Eastern tower of Two Lights that’s been on display in town hall for 18 years.

Town officials want to move the 1,800-pound lens to accommodate planned renovations at town hall. That will require attention by a qualified lampist approved by the U.S. Coast Goard and, according to Facilites Director Greg Marles, “Right now they have five qualified lampists in the United States doing this type of work.”

“Updated conditions and insurance could result in an annual cost of about $7,500 to care for this lens,” said Town Manager Michael McGovern, in an email to the Town Council. “I recommend we return this lens to the U.S. Coast Guard to ensure its long term preservation.”

Looking ahead to tomorrow, the newly consitututed Library Planning Committee – made up of Councilors Frank Governali, Kathy Ray and Jessica Sullivan, along with library trustee Molly MacAusian and school board member Mary Kate Williams-Hewitt – will meet to begin brainstorming the future of Thomas Memorial Library following the defeat of a $6 million renovation bond at the polls in November.

On Monday, the council approved a plan to eliminate late fees at the library. Those fees rake in $6,500 per year – which actually went into the town’s general fund without benefiting the library directly. However, librarian Jay Scherma said staff time spent chasing after overdue materials actually resulted last year in a net loss of $762. More important, he said, late fees, meant as an incentive to return items on time, actually serves as a disincentive to use the library at all.

Scherma said a “conscience jar” may be put on the circulation counter. In addition to going into the library budget, that money could prove a greater boon that late fees ever were. According to Scherma, in the 40 percent of MINERVA libraries that have done away with late fees in the last few years, many have found patrons voluntarily pay more into the guilt jar that they were ever charged in later fees, which, he added, “never even kept pace with the price of postage stamps.”

Finally, while much of tonight’s talk in Cape is about money out, there is one potential source of revenue on the agenda of the Fort Williams Advisory Commission meeting. A roundtable discussion between the commission and the Fort Williams Foundation – an independent fundraising organization that supports the park – is slated to include “naming opportunities and singage.”

SoPo sequestration

South Portland’s Community Development Advisory Committee will meet tonight to make its final recommendations on block grant funding for the coming fiscal year. The city received $388,000 last year as its share of federal funds awarded to Portland. However, the sequestration deal has cost the program 8.2 percent of its expected dollars for this year, or about $30,000. South Portland’s CDBG money goes to various social service programs, such a Meals on Wheels, and city services, such as the Red Bank Community Center, general assistance and bus service subsidies and recreation department program grants, as well as capital projects, such as sidewalk construction.

Today’s public meetings:

• Portland Harbor Commission, 5 p.m. at South Portland City Hall (lower room).

• Thomas Memorial Library Board of Trustees, 6:30 p.m. at the library.

• Cape Elizabeth Finance Committee, 7 p.m. at town hall.

• Cape Elizabeth Town Council special meeting, immediately following finance committee meeting at town hall.

• Fort Williams Advisory Committee, 7 p.m. at public works.

• Scarborough Town Council Finance Committee/Board of Education Finance Committee joint meeting, 7 p.m. at town hall.

• South Portland Community Development Advisory Committee, 7 p.m. at city hall (manager’s office).

Friday’s public meetings:

• Cape Elizabeth Library Planning Committee, 9:30 a.m. at the library.

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