Cape Elizabeth voters will consider two referendum proposals on the June 14 town ballot: a $24.3 million school budget for 2016-17 and a $1.4 million upgrade to the solid waste transfer station.

The school spending plan is up nearly $751,000, or 3.2 percent, over the budget ending June 30.

It’s part of a $37.8 million combined municipal, school and county spending plan that would increase the property tax rate by 66 cents, or 3.9 percent, from $16.88 to $17.54 per $1,000 of assessed property value.

At that rate, the annual tax bill on a $300,000 home would increase $198, or 3.9 percent, from $5,064 to $5,262.

In casting their ballots, voters will be asked a separate nonbinding question to indicate whether they think the proposed school budget is too high, acceptable or too low.

Voters also will decide whether to continue holding annual school budget referendums for the next three years, which would leave budget approval to the town council and school board.

Voters also will be asked to authorize borrowing for the transfer station upgrade, which would cost $1.8 million over the life of 20-year bonds with an estimated average annual interest rate of 3 percent.

Town officials say the recommended redesign would make the 37-year-old facility safer, more accessible, more efficient and more economical. It would replace the station’s large, below-ground-level hopper with several smaller, drive-by compactors.

A committee developed the redesign following a November 2014 accident that killed 79-year-old Herbert Dennison when a vehicle driven by another resident backed into him and pushed him into the hopper, which wasn’t operating at the time.

After the accident, the town changed the traffic pattern at the transfer station to eliminate backing up to the compactor and required residents to carry trash into the compactor building.

 

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