Before deciding whether to approve municipal and town budgets, the Gorham Town Council will hear public comment next week on each budget. If the panel OKs the school spending plan, it goes to voters in a referendum next month.
The proposed school budget is $35,174,530, up $1 million, representing a 2.99 percent increase from this year’s $34,152,140. The increase would hike the town’s tax rate 75 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation.
Town Manager David Cole is proposing a $14.1 million municipal budget, which includes $1 million for the Cumberland County tax. The town side of the budget would increase the tax rate 30 cents while the county tax would add an additional nickel, equaling an increase of 35 cents on the tax rate.
The budget public hearing is set for 7 p.m. on Tuesday, June 2, at Gorham Municipal Center, 75 South St. A school budget validation election in Gorham is set for Tuesday, June 9.
The combined municipal and school budgets add up to $49.2 million, up about $1.7 million. If the school and municipal budgets pass as proposed, taxes on a Gorham home assessed at $200,000 would rise by $220.
The school spending has risen upward from $30.1 million in 2010. A $5 million increase over the five-year span represents a 16.6 percent hike.
The Gorham School Committee last month approved its proposed budget with a 5-2 vote (Suzanne Phillips and John Doyle opposed). Phillips and Doyle spoke to the Town Council in last week’s budget workshop.
“It’s status quo budgeting,” Doyle told town councilors in a lengthy presentation.
After last week’s Town Council budget workshop, Doyle, responding to an email request from the American Journal, condensed his comments to the Town Council.
“Each year we make tweaks around the periphery, but by and large our education program and how we deliver it have remained unchanged for a long time,” Doyle wrote.
“The price goes up, but student outcomes don’t necessarily follow. I would like to see us review and consider fundamentally different ways to do this thing called ‘education’ to improve student learning while potentially reducing costs at the same time. Unfortunately, the School Committee’s budget review process is structurally such that we end up focusing on the proposed peripheral changes without really tackling this broader question. I think we can do better and so I voted no on the budget.”
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