WESTBROOK – Westbrook’s municipal budget is a done deal, and residents now will decide the fate of the school budget, which, if passed, will decrease taxes.
On Monday, the City Council approved a $56.6 million budget for the city, school and county for the upcoming fiscal year. The city budget of $23.12 million and county budget of $1.14 million are finalized, but the school department’s $32.3 million budget will still need to be approved in a validation referendum on June 11.
The municipal budget is down $4,693 from this year, while the city’s share of the Cumberland County tax is up $62,557. The school budget is up $1.39 million, but it is anticipated that state aid will cover that increase so residents will not see a bump in their school taxes.
According to Jerre Bryant, city administrator, if the school budget passes the public vote, the tax rate will decrease by 21 cents to $17.19 per $1,000 of assessed valuation.
The school budget includes 12 new positions, including four elementary teachers. One of those positions is for one year only, two are English as a Second Language teachers and two are educational technicians, one at the high school and one at the middle school. Other new positions include a transportation coordinator, maintenance coordinator, technology coordinator and a gifted and talented teacher.
Eight positions were dropped to cover the new positions. Those include five custodial positions and one staff member from maintenance, administration and a technology integrator – a position left unfilled since the middle of the year, according to Dean Flanagin, director of operations in the district.
The custodial positions, a shared resource between the city and the school, will now be outsourced by the city as a cost-savings strategy.
On June 11, residents will vote on whether to approve the school budget and also whether they want to continue the validation referendum process. Every three years voters get a chance to weigh in on the school budget referendum process. Otherwise, the school spending plan would be handled like the city budget and be approved after public hearings and review by the Finance Committee and the City Council.
“It depends on a lot of factors, but if it’s just the school budget, with all the normal wards it costs about $4,000 to hold,” said Lynda Adams, city clerk. “This election is a little different. Wards 2,3 and 4 will vote in one line at the Armory so we’ll save some money and we can do that this time because it won’t be a busy election. If we didn’t continue with the school budget elections, it would save us some cost.”
Adams said in June 2011, the last time a vote was held for just the school budget, only 1,100 residents cast their ballots, one-tenth of the voting population.
The City Council on Monday also reviewed the 2012 fiscal year audit, which shows nearly a $1 million surplus that will be used for capital improvement projects in the future. But there are continuing problems, as well.
Auditor Tim Greene, of Roberts and Greene, said this is the best audit of the three years his company has been reviewing the city’s finances, but there is still work to do before the audit process will get a positive review.
Greene said the two main problems with the audit were that “the city did not report all of its capital asset additions and disposals and the depreciation expense on those assets for the current year. The amounts by which this departure would affect the assets, liabilities, net assets, revenues and expenses of the City of Westbrook, Maine is not reasonably determinable.
“Also, the city did not report its liability or annual cost for post-employment benefits other than pensions in the discretely presented component unit.”
According to Alicia Gardiner, comptroller for the city, these two issues are being cleared up. This process was started last year and Gardiner said she hopes everything will be in line in time for the next audit in December.
Gardiner said each department in the city maintains its own invoices and there has not been a central account for the capital assets. Once that central account is in place, the city will get a favorable review for their asset piece.
“We’ve come a significant way in our process and we’re moving in the right direction,” Gardiner said.
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