BRUNSWICK

Looking to bring overall tax increases closer to 3 percent from the current 3.49 percent, Brunswick councilors voted to cut the school budget by an additional $85,000, one week after Superintendent Paul Perzanoski presented the council with $410,000 in cuts it had initially sought.

In a budget discussion Monday night, Councilor Jane Millett brought to the council’s attention an $85,000 line item in the school budget earmarked for paving at the high school, part of a rotating maintenance schedule to prevent further degradation of the surface.

“I looked at the high school access road and the parking area and walked it twice in the last week and while it does have a few cracks, it’s not nearly in as poor shape as some roads leading to the high school and some of our other schools,” Millett said.

Millett also suggested what wear the high school pavement is showing can handle the 15 mile per hour traffic better than town roads that run between 25 and 50 miles per hour.

“While I appreciate the school board is trying to address maintenance and repair issues, we have to be balanced in what we spend taxpayers dollars on and common sense and simple addition tells us we have to prioritize our needs with the dollars available,” Millett said.

Millett said that while she realizes the town council cannot dictate how the school board spends their funds, she recommended cutting their proposed budget by an additional $85,000 to either go to reducing the tax rate or repairing town streets.

Millett’s sentiment was echoed by Councilor Kathy Wilson, who said she felt disappointed by the outcome of the school budget.

“I felt hoodwinked — that’s how I felt,” Wilson said.

Vice Chairman Steve Walker supported Millett’s suggestion and said it was an “obvious place to cut $85,000 because it’s not needed.”

Councilor John Perrault said he would not be backing such an action, noting that the school board had come up with the cuts the council initially asked for.

“I’m not going to go back on my good faith effort that I think we made,” Perreault said, later offering a more balanced cut between the municipal and school budgets. Council Chairwoman Sarah Brayman responded that she was under the impression the town had cut as much as it could.

The 6-2 vote in favor of cutting the budget was opposed by Councilors

Dave Watson and Perreault. Prior to the vote, Watson said this was a matter of communication between the town manager and Perzanoski, saying this vote diminishes the council’s integrity in dealing with the board.

It didn’t take long for school board member Rich Ellis to take to social media while watching the meeting from home.

“Until tonight’s vote, there was a clearly defined line in the annual budget process, supported by state statute and general practice, that the town council does not have line item authority over how the school spends its budget, only over what the total will be for the budget. Tonight, six councilors clearly crossed that line,” Ellis wrote.

Ellis said that as someone familiar with the budgeting process, he would love to be able to tell the council they shouldn’t have spent $300,000 on the derelict Cumberland Farms on Pleasant Street or that perhaps they should forgo $200,000 in replacement trim at the town hall building when they are concerned about “unpaved and, by their own description, dangerous roads.”

“I might even advise them that they probably should have refrained from hiring new senior staff positions, in the form of an assistant town manager, when at the same time they were reducing police officers,” Ellis said.

Ellis said he has refrained from making his advice public as it is clear to him that he is no more an elected town councilor than they are elected school board members.

“It is my intent to actively oppose these changes to the Brunswick school board budget, both on the merits of the targeted projects, and, more importantly, on the principle that the council does not have line item authority over the school budget,” Ellis said.

dmcintire@timesrecord.com