Staff Writer 

According to results from the South Portland City Clerk’s office, more than 2,000 South Portland residents traveled to the polls Tuesday to cast their vote in the city’s school budget validation referendum. 

A $39.4 million school budget, the largest monetary item on the ballot, passed with more than 1,400 votes in favor and more than 750 votes opposed. The school budget is expected to result in a “flat” or zero percent increase to local property taxes from last year. Approximately 500 more residents voted on the school budget this year than in May 2008.  

A $5.8 million bond to fund maintenance projects at Mahoney and Memorial Middle schools and the South Portland High School was also approved by voters. The bond, will fund new electrical and fire safety systems at the schools but not address projects identified in a report by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges Commission. The bond was approved with more than 1,250 votes in favor and less than 1,000 opposed.

A $3 million bond available through the Maine Municipal Bond Bank to repair a pump station behind Wild Willy’s restaurant on Western Avenue was also approved with a similar margin: more than 1,280 voted in favor of acquiring the funding and less than 850 voted against.

A proposal to amend the City Charter to allow the city council to surpass the public bidding process for bond items is the only item on the ballot that was not approved. Although nearly twice as many voters were in favor of the charter amendment as were opposed, passage would have required 3,165 favorable votes – nearly 1,000 more than the total cast during the referendum.

   Staff Writer Nate Jones may be reached at 282-4337 ext. 233.