What’s in the school budget that Scarborough voters are being asked to approve next Tuesday?

An 8.2 percent increase in spending over last year, and nearly $3 million in additional property taxes.

If your income increases by 10 percent, you’ll stay even with the proposed School Department’s 8.2 percent request and the resulting 5.7 percent rise in your property taxes.

Many taxpayers in our town are seeing their income increase by zero percent or at best 2 or 3 percent over two to three years. That is today’s reality.

I have served on a school board, including its finance, negotiation and budget committees. If I were a member of our school board I, too, would support the proposed budget; that would be my duty and responsibility.

I have no particular beef with the Scarborough School Department; my wife worked in the Portland Public Schools for 22 years. I have some idea of the many problems administrators and front-line teachers face.

The Town Council has done a good job of keeping municipal spending in check, making tough line-item decisions and maintaining overall funding levels. This has not been the case when they’ve set the budget for the School Department. School expenditures have grown by 20.2 percent over the past five years (2010-2015). The council is responsible for this unsustainable level of growth. The council has approved an 8.2 percent increase for 2016.

Who in our community has seen a 20 percent increase in their income during the past five years? Who will receive a 10 percent raise this year?

In business or your household budget, you cannot continue to increase spending year after year at a rate faster than the growth of your income; it’s Economics 101.

This is your last chance to control your 2016 tax bill. Vote “no” on the school budget.

Larry Hartwell

Scarborough