By Nate Jones

Staff Writer 

 All three of Cape Elizabeth’s state legislators made their way to town hall earlier this week to connect with the town council and school board, who have just begun to tackle the daunting task of putting together a budget during a national economic recession. 

“One of the things I felt was lacking in our relationships in the past was an opportunity to sit and talk with each other,” said State Sen. Larry Bliss. “There is huge value in us not going to Augusta assuming we know what you’re thinking.”

Town Council Finance Committee Chairman Anne Swift-Kayatta repeatedly asked all three legislators – Bliss and representatives Cynthia Dill and Jane Eberle – if the town could expect any financial assistance from the state in lieu of the Department of Education’s recent curtailment that created a $421,000 gap in the Cape Elizabeth School budget. 

“There certainly are a lot of communities upset about the curtailment. Ten percent of it is coming from Portland, South Portland and Scarborough, and a good portion is coming from Cape [Elizabeth] too,” Bliss said. “I’m aware that [Cape Elizabeth Superintendent Alan Hawkins] could possibly be meeting with other superintendents to go to the state for help. I’m hoping town managers and councilors get onboard too, because you know your legislators will back you.”

Eberle said she hoped to take some stress out of this budget season with a bill that would eliminate the need for a school budget validation referendum in communities where School Board members and municipal officials were elected by the community and have public forums on the budget. Last year it took three referendums, as are now required by the school consolidation law, before a Cape Elizabeth school budget was approved. 

“[The bill] has had huge support from communities who are in [Cape Elizabeth’s] situation,” she said. “But, the whole school consolidation thing is going to be very touchy. We’re all going to be eating at the parts of it that aren’t working.”

Town Councilor Sara Lennon said she wasn’t sure how citizens would react if the school budget validation referendum was eliminated from the budget process.

“I know people who think the citizen vote is the best part of the consolidation,” she said. “Going to referendum was a huge hassle for us, but there was something good too. It takes the power away from us and puts it directly in to the community.”

Eberle, who filed the bill with an emergency status, said the bill could be enacted by spring.

Regardless of who has final approval, Hawkins said he has already begun to prepare a school budget at a 2 percent increase in spending from last year, as was recommended by the school board last month. 

“With just salary increases and benefits and energy costs I’m looking at a $1.1 million overture,” he said.

School Board Vice Chairman Patricia Brigham said maintaining the school’s current programs and continuing to provide employees with normal salary increases and benefits meant a 5 percent increase in spending from last year’s budget. Town Council Chairman Jim Rowe agreed with Councilor Paul McKenney, who said he would prefer to see a school budget increase no greater than 2 percent, while other councilors withheld their opinions. 

“I don’t want to set a target,” Lennon said. “It feels like we’re going down the same road we went down last year. To me, it’s too early, there are too many unknowns. This is not a productive conversation.”

Town Manager Michael McGovern has already prepared a “flat,” or zero percent increased municipal budget for the upcoming year, which he said would mean identifying up to $521,000 in spending reductions. To meet the flat budget, McGovern said six employees would have to be eliminated, most by shifting the town’s dispatch services to those offered by Cumberland County. Also, Family Fun Day would be cancelled in 2010 and the facilities manager’s hours would be cut in half. Rowe said he would not support altering the dispatcher’s contracts for another two years – as was promised by the council in early 2008 – and Lennon suggested McGovern should mimic Hawkins’ budgetary freeze and review before eliminating positions.

“Nickel and diming gets you a lot of nickels and dimes, it doesn’t get you hundreds of thousands of dollars,” McGovern said. 

According to preliminary estimates, a 2 percent increase in the school budget, combined with a flat municipal budget, would increase the tax rate by 2.57 percent or 44 cents per thousand dollars of assessed value. Those same estimates predict a 5 percent increased school budget and flat municipal budget would result in a 6 percent tax rate increase.

A public forum on the developing budget is scheduled for Jan. 21, to be followed by a Jan. 28 joint meeting between the town council and the school board.