The snow piles are nearly gone. The crocuses are poking through. The budget battle is brewing. Ahh, springtime in Scarborough! With a more open budget process and an energized taxpayer base, this year’s budget process promises to be a corker.

Reality Check

Why all the interest in the budget? Much is probably due to the sticker shock that has occurred when folks have opened their tax bills over the past few years. In the five years from FY 2011 to FY 2015, the bottom-line tax rate (known as “the mil rate”) has increased from $12.63 per $1,000 of a home’s value to $15.10 per $1,000. That’s an increase of 19.6 percent. During that period, inflation has been about 8.4 percent. How many families’ incomes have grown by 19.6 percent during those five years?

But wait. There’s more! The proposed tax rate increase in the budget presented by town and school leaders on April 1 was another 8.5 percent for the coming year. Add to that the proposed new trash “fee” of perhaps another $100 per household (the “Pay-As-You-Throw” program) and you have a total property tax increase of more than 10 percent. At a time when inflation is essentially flat. Zilch. Nada. No wonder there’s public interest.

The myths

As in past years, certain myths are beginning to surface, circulate and, through repetition, approach factual status. These myths are: 1. There has been a long history of Scarborough school expenditures being severely cut. 2. The quality of education in Scarborough is nose-diving as a result of these cuts. 3. Property values are suffering because of the school system’s poor reputation. Let’s consider each of these.

Myth No. 1 – A history of cuts

Already the plaintive wailing has begun – stop cutting the school budget! As one parent stated recently at a Town Council meeting: “We can’t keep cutting every year and saying, do more with less.” This is, as the old salts say, bilgewater! The only “cutting” that has occurred to school budgets in the last five years is the paring down of astronomical initial budget requests to still-outrageous final levels. The accompanying chart shows growth of more than 20 percent in approved school operating expenses in the last five years, almost two-and-a-half times the inflation rate. How anyone can characterize that history of steady spending increases as “cutting to the bone” is astonishing.

Myth No. 2 – Educational quality is suffering

If school financial support were indeed being curtailed, one would logically expect the quality of education offered by the schools to suffer. While it’s not easy to quantify educational quality, here are a couple of indicators: The state of Maine’s school ranking system gives both the High School and Wentworth School an A and the Middle School a B. Most parents wouldn’t complain if their kids brought home two As and a B. Another indicator is the U.S. News & World Report’s annual national ranking of high schools. Scarborough places No. 10 out of 112 public high schools in Maine. Again, pretty darn good.

Myth #3 – Property values are suffering

Another refrain of the no-limits-on-education-spending group is that the sad state of our schools is leading to an erosion of property valuations in Scarborough. But the state’s 2015 valuation report doesn’t support that contention. According to that report, Scarborough’s valuation increased by 5.86 percent from 2014 to 2015, more than the county-wide average increase of 5.35 percent, and even edged out the increases of our posh neighbors of Cape Elizabeth, Falmouth and Yarmouth. Another myth exploded.

It’s Our Budget

Sometimes we forget that this is our budget, not the town’s or the school board’s. After all the numbers are crunched, the bill comes to us. So don’t be bashful about letting Town Council and School Board members know how you feel. Some of them don’t seem to appreciate the necessity of balancing real-world financial constraints with the needs of a quality school system. But if they hear the same thing from several hundred people, it should start to sink in.

And, on April 29, Scarborough taxpayers will have an unprecedented opportunity to provide input and ask questions about the budget. At 7 p.m. on that date at the high school, town and school leaders will hold a public forum on the proposed budget. The highly unusual aspect of this forum is that they have promised to answer the questions raised by the public! It’s an exciting concept; we hope they deliver.

The public budget forum is reminiscent of a town meeting, that long tradition of hands-on democracy in New England towns. If you have never attended a council or school board meeting, this is the meeting to mark on your calendar right now. There’s nothing like a room full of interested and energized voters to get the attention of elected officials. See you there on April 29.

Steve Hanly is a Scarborough resident. Visit his blog or contact him at www.LookOutScarborough.com.

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