SCARBOROUGH — The Town Council is working on next year’s municipal budget, proposed at a net total of $73 million for FY21.
On April 8, the Scarborough Town Council held a public meeting over Zoom and YouTube about the proposal. Town Manager Tom Hall and Superintendent of Schools Sanford Prince led the presentation.
Hall gave a breakdown of the proposal, which would be a 5.8 percent increase from FY20’s $69 million net budget.
Primary drivers influencing the town government budget include an increased debt service of $325,000, contractual obligations, worker’s compensation of $165,000, full cost of new staff that had been approved in FY20, health insurance, with a 10 percent estimated increase, and operational costs of the new public safety building, said Hall.
Prince explained that the school’s primary drivers are salary and benefits, continued increase of K-2 enrollment, specialized services, aging and overcrowded facilities at the primary schools and middle school, and curriculum assessment updates.
New investments for schools total to about $1 million, said Prince.
On April 9, the Board of Education held a workshop to discuss the proposed budget of $56 million, a 5.57 percent increase over the FY20 budget.
A public hearing to discuss the municipal budget is scheduled for May 6, said Hall, but he is uncertain whether this will be a remote meeting or not. A final vote on the budget would be May 20 for the Town Council and May 21 for the School Board.
Hall added that the public can view the entire proposal on the town and school’s budget portal, sites.google.com/scarboroughmaine.org/budgetportal.
Councilor Betsy Gleysteen, a member of the finance committee, said that while she voted on March 23 for the current budget calendar, she believes that the Covid-19 outbreak has caused extraordinary circumstances that should allow a delay of the process as long as it makes sense.
With all of the information presented, Councilor John Cloutier said that he thinks the town is at a good starting point.
“With what Tom did present, it did seem like there is some conservatism on the municipal side, which I was encouraged to see,” he said. “It may be that some of those assumptions can be relaxed as we get closer … It’s not an ideal situation for any of us to start the budget process remotely, without a lot of clarity, but we have to start somewhere. In my mind we’re better off working with a budget that has some thought put into it than just trying carry something from last year.”
Councilor Jean-Marie Caterina said that she’s looking forward to discussing the budget with her constituents through the Covid-19 pandemic.
“I think in this year, given what’s going on and what people are dealing with, our taxpayers in town, the more we can hold on the budget but do the least amount of damage — that’s going to be walking a fine line — is what I look to see, and I look forward to working with the School Board and my fellow councilors to make that happen,” she said. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime situation we’re dealing with here. It’s going to be like threading a needle.”
“I think we understand our target, and hopefully we can drive under our target,” said Councilor Ken Johnson. “Times are tough and we’re not sure what tomorrow holds, so let’s get it done.”
With concerns about divisiveness on social media discussions, Councilor Peter Hayes said that a 3 percent budget increase had been the town and board of education’s goal before the Covid-19 situation had started. The unexpected strain on many people’s incomes has changed the conversation, including the September tax collection.
“This is something that is beyond anyone’s control,” Hayes said. “Before we have conversations about somehow them not delivering, both the town manager and superintendent and elected officials brought what we expected. Now comes the heavy lifting. … In my mind we need to be much closer to that 3 percent, and frankly, we need to be under that 3 percent.”
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