By Ward Peck

Editor

    With a 4-3 vote, the Cape Elizabeth Town Council
passed a combined $29.2 million budget for municipal, school and
country spending, with all but $7.7 million raised through property
taxes.

    The budget, which takes effect July 1, represents a
2.9 percent or $825,000 increase of the current budget and translates
to a 1.86 percent or 30-cent increase in the town’s anticipated tax
rate from $16.16 per $1,000 of assessed value to $16.46. That tax rate
is likely to change during the fiscal year following an update to the
town’s property value assessments being conducted by the assessor, Matt
Sturgis.

    The three dissenting councilors, David Backer, Anne
Swift-Kayatta and Mary Ann Lynch stuck to the end to a promise they
made more than three years ago to limit spending to the rate of
inflation, pegged at the beginning of the budget process at 2.5 percent
and later revised to 2.8 percent. But in the final year of the
three-year pledge, those councilors found themselves in the minority
and unable to persuade at least one of the four other councilors to
agree to their self-imposed spending limit.

    While the $8.5 million municipal budget passed on
Monday limited spending to $205,205, or 2.47 percent– less than both
inflation figures, the school budget, which makes up nearly two-thirds
of municipal spending, did not.

    In March, School Supt. Alan Hawkins recommended a
$19.2 million school budget, which would have increased school spending
by 5.2 percent– more than twice the then recognized Consumer Price
Index rate of inflation. Left out of Hawkins’ budget was more than
$20,000 in additional spending he requested the school board consider
adding to the budget for coaching positions and a full-time nurse.

    Instead, the school board reduced Hawkins’ recommended budget by $255,000 to a growth rate of 3.8 percent.

    The school board’s budget received a chilly
reception from the town council, where it was supported by a single
councilor, Sara Lennon, who indicated she would have supported the
original 5.2 percent increase.

    With three councilor’s entrenched in supporting an
inflation-based budget and three councilors indicating a willingness to
find a compromise solution, the school board returned to the council
with a proposal to move nearly $100,000 of the fiscal budget and
finance it over several years through borrowing, reducing their request
to a 3.24 percent increase.

    During that time the revised 2.8 percent CPI was
released. Councilor Jim Rowe, a former school board member, put forward
a compromise figure that would allow the school budget to grow 3.0
percent. The three percent increase combined with the increased
borrowing reduced the gap between the school board budget and a
council-supported budget to less than $44,000.

    At Monday’s meeting, Rowe’s compromise achieved the
support of three other councilors, Cynthia Dill, Council Chair Paul
McKenney and Lennon.

    But Backer, Lynch and Swift-Kayatta were unmoved.

    “School expenditures have grown 26.25 percent over
the past five years,” Swift-Kayatta said. “That 26.25 percent nominal
dollar growth equates to a 10.52 percent growth in constant 2003
dollars; i.e., 10.52% more than inflation over the same period. Over
the same period, enrollment shows a 1.3 percent decline; the number of
regular teachers shows a 5.92 percent increase; and enrollment per
regular teacher changes from 14.84 students per teacher to 13.83
students per teacher, a 6.8 percent decrease.

    Swift-Kayatta as well as Backer and Lynch each cited
the need to exercise fiscal restraint in the face of several recent and
potentially future attempts to impose tax or spending caps at the state
level.

    “This is the first time in my six years on the
council I will be voting against a budget,” Lynch said. While she said
she would not support the budget, she praised the school board for
delivering “in their view, a no-frills budget,” but said she was
committed to keeping her promise.

    Backer cited the high tax burden in Maine and said
while the legislature has promised meaningful tax and spending reform,
“with four to five weeks left in the legislative session, there is no
reason to believe they will address tax and spending reform.”

    “Instead,” Backer said, “[they are considering]
school consolidation, none of which addresses the underlying tax and
spending issues and will cause our costs to go up, not down.”

    Backer said that in this environment, it was the
council’s responsibility to reduce the incremental increases they can
control.

    Where the school department will find the $44,000 in
council mandated cuts to the proposed budget increase will be discussed
by the school board at a meeting on Tuesday (May 22) at 7 p.m. in the
High School Library.

    According to Hawkins, one of the proposals is to cut
the two-year Cape Elizabeth High School Latin program, which will save
about $26,000. The school board could also cut an education technician
or other programs, Hawkins said.