Biddeford voters yesterday overwhelmingly rejected the proposed $32.9 million school budget.
Voters opposed the budget 445 to 208. A second question that asked why voters opposed the budget indicated 413 residents wanted a lower number, while 27 people thought it should be higher.
The School Committee and City Council will reconsider the budget before a second referendum later this summer. The fiscal 2011 budget will remain in effect until a new budget is adopted.
The budget put to voters had remained unchanged after it and the city budget were vetoed earlier this month by Mayor Alan Casavant. The veto caused a delay in the school budget referendum originally scheduled for June 12.
The City Council last week approved a combined $59.7 million budget, cutting $170,000 from the city side of the budget. Casavant wanted to cut $330,000 from the education budget, but the council did not support that move.
If the school budget had been approved, the combined budgets would have required the addition of $1.26, or more than 8 percent, to the city’s property tax rate. That equates to a $252 increase on the tax bill of a $200,000 home.
“I think (voters) verified what I had been saying all along: The tax hike was too much and we can’t afford it,” Casavant said. “They definitely found their voice.”
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