Sebago residents will weigh in on town and school department budgets at the annual Town Meeting, slated to be held in person on Tuesday, May 25.
The proposed $2.7 million municipal budget is a 3.5% increase over current spending, or just over $91,000.
However, that increase will largely be a wash due to a projected 20% jump in excise tax and fee-sourced revenues of $95,700 for a total of $583,000, according to the Town Meeting warrant.
The net school budget proposal is flat-funded at $1.89 million, or less than a percentage point below the 2020-21 operating budget.
Residents will also be asked to appropriate $225,000 from the undesignated fund balance toward school operating costs, the same amount as last year.
The Sebago School Department’s expenditure budget for the 2021-22 fiscal year is $3.81 million, a 1.9% increase from the current year’s spending plan.
In a flyer to the community, Superintendent Marc Gendron said that the district is hiring one additional ed tech and adding more working hours for the special education director, accounting for the majority of the increase.
The school district is projecting a 2.9% increase, or about $95,600, will be needed from local taxes, taking that share up to just under $3.4 million. State funding is expected to increase by nearly 42%. The school district received about $239,500 in state funding this fiscal year and expects a nearly $100,000 increase for a total of around $340,000. In total, revenues are up nearly 5% over the current budget.
The annual town meeting will take place in-person beginning at 6 p.m. May 25 at Sebago Town Hall at 406 Bridgton Road, and will be followed by a referendum on the school budget. Voters will choose their elected officials on June 8 at the same location, where the polls will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. For more information, see townofsebago.org.
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