To the Editor:

The referendum to approve Brunswick’s school budget next Tuesday epitomizes two axioms of municipal governance.

The first: “Nobody spends somebody else’s money as carefully as they spend their own.”

Per-student costs have increased by 6.3 percent annually in the last 12 years. Had the increase been 5 percent, the proposed $35 million budget would be $5 million lower.

Spending more is a subjective conviction that school excellence is measured by how much we spend, and no one in authority, let alone taxpayers, question such unsustainable cost growth. This is like defining your excellence as a cook by how much you spend on groceries.

The second axiom is: “What belongs to you, you tend to take care of; what belongs to no one or everyone tends to fall into disrepair.”

If you can compel money from others to replace something, you don’t worry too much about taking care of it, and may even be motivated to do the opposite. Jordan Acres School became unusable because of uncleared snow buildup on the roof. Now, two other schools need replacement because they were not adequately maintained. Broken toilets and other dreadful examples of poor stewardship abound.

As they say, “you can govern or you can spend.” In Brunswick, the latter always triumphs over the former. It’s clear that serious introspection, and disciplined analysis of budget trajectories and asset stewardship is long overdue.

Defeating the proposed budget is a good way to make that point.

Pem Schaeffer
Brunswick