SCARBOROUGH – There appears to be little love in Scarborough for next year’s $71.8 million budget, with much of the criticism leveled at last week’s public hearing directed at the school side of the ledger.
Although the Scarborough Board of Education approved the first reading of a $41.38 million budget proposal – up 10.6 percent – Superintendent George Entwistle revealed at a Town Council finance committee held the day before the hearing that he had carved off $1.34 million, reducing the budget hike to 6.98 percent. During the budget presentation given by Town Manager Tom Hall just prior to last week’s hearing, the increase was said to be 6.64 percent.
However, after the hearing Entwistle would not say where the cuts came from, in either announced number.
“The specifics are still being worked out but we feel comfortable we can get it down to this number,” he said, adding that a public revelation of those details will not come until a special school board meeting set for April 22.
Similarly, school Finance Director Kate Bolton also would not say where the cuts were to be made, although she did add, “There are not jobs being cut; there are no cuts in programming.”
Even so, about a dozen speakers culled from the crowd of about 60 who attended the hearing spoke ill of the budget proposal, even though Entwistle’s latest pass reduced the projected tax increase on a median home from $525 to $420.
“You’re killing me. You’re going to make it so I have to move,” said Pine Point Road resident Moira Erickson, a nurse who said her husband recently lost his job when the Nissan bakery went under.
“I can tell you in my household we’ve cut all kinds of things. We squeeze the toothpaste tube, we don’t get pizza when we want to, my kids wear their sneakers longer than they should,” said Erickson. “That’s what we should be doing as a town.”
Erickson suggested the town tighten its belt, as well, especially at the fire and police departments. Others, such as Abigail Way resident Jane Leng, rose in support of the school budget.
“The school budget has a lot of things, like new school buses that have been put off in the past,” she said, tying strong schools to property values. “We give them a job to do to educate out children but we don’t give them the money. We have to make our schools attractive compared to other towns around here.”
Most others, however, seemed incredulous of the budget hike.
“This increase is absurd,” said Susan Hamill of Shady Creek Lane. “It’s just crazy. What is the emergency we didn’t plan for?”
“In two years alone, my taxes will have gone up over $1,000. That’s kind of ridiculous,” said Brad Dupee, of Evergreen Farms Road.
After the meeting, Town Council Chairman Ron Ahlquist echoed concerns raised about the school budget.
“They told us last year was a correction year and yet, here we go again. Now, for the first time, people are scared, I think,” he said, noting the large percentage of speakers who were senior citizens on so-called fixed incomes. “When their taxes go up that amount, they have to find that from someplace.”
Ahlquist promised the council intends to hold the school board’s feet to the fire on the guidance it gave in January, when it said neither side – school or town – should increase spending by more than 3 percent.
According to preliminary numbers run by Town Manager Tom Hall, if the April 1 commitment date shows the expected $15 million increase in property valuation town-wide, to $3.65 billion, the proposed school budget has the potential to add $1.40 to the property tax rate of $13.80 per $1,000 of valuation.
Former school board Chairman Robert Mitchell speaks during an April 10 public budget hearing in Scarborough, saving his criticism for the Town Council, which he said has authorized too much cumulative borrowing, $3.6 million next year, for small projects that “should be part of the regular operating budget.” Staff photo by Duke Harrington
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