SCARBOROUGH — With a new goal of a 2 percent tax rate increase, the town and school department will be presenting a modified budget proposal for 2021 on May 6.
The town is taking “unprecedented circumstances” into account as it reworks the originally proposed municipal net budget of $73 million, a 5.8 percent increase from 2020, for the May 6 Town Council meeting, said Councilor Peter Hayes.
During a joint town and school finance committee meeting on April 14, the committee members decided to rework both the school and town budgets to the new goal of a mill rate of 2 percent increase before the first reading on May 6, said Council Chair Paul Johnson.
On April 8, the Town Council discussed how the budget would have a 60-day period to be finalized, beginning once the first reading takes place.
Hayes said on April 15 that the finance committee will be going back and balancing the numbers to see what the community needs and what taxpayers can afford.
“We all recognize that probably, given the times, given the circumstances, (the original proposal) probably wasn’t the place we should start from, and I will give credit — both the municipal side and the Board of Education delivered on the goals that the finance committees had established back in time, before our world has really fundamentally changed,” Hayes said.
Johnson said that delaying the first reading will give the town and school departments time to figure out the numbers.
“We have some work to do and time is our friend,” he said.
Town Manager Tom Hall said that he hopes to be productive in reworking the budget with Superintendent of Schools Sanford Prince and other department heads as to what the new target will be.
“I’m quite hopeful, at least on the town’s side, where we have some clarity in that regard, that by the time we get to first reading, I’ll be able to describe in great detail the sorts of efforts that I’ve undertaken to achieve that goal,” Hall said.
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