MECHANIC FALLS – With too many factors hanging in limbo, elected and appointed officials realized during a Wednesday meeting that they couldn’t commit to anything when it comes to municipal and school budgets.

“Until we get some concrete figures from the state, it’s all just a best guess,” said School Union 29 Superintendent Nina Schlikin. “We’ll start preparing our budgets in December like we normally do, but we may not know what we’re working with.”

Members of the town’s council, School Committee and Budget Committee met jointly as a precursor to upcoming budget preparations. School administrators begin their budget process in December, but they won’t have any answers until March or April, Schlikin said.

Mechanic Falls voters approve all municipal and school spending during their annual May town meeting, while the other two School Union 29 towns of Minot and Poland hold their town meetings in March and April, respectively.

A referendum that limits property taxes to 1 percent of assessed valuation will be decided by voters Tuesday. After that, several organizations already have plans to tie up the results in court.

A previous referendum, passed in June, that requires the state budget to pay 55 percent of total local education costs waits for legislative action in January. While shifting additional state funds to local coffers was intended to result in property tax relief, there have yet to be any guarantees.

And creating more unknowns is the state’s new education funding formula, called Essential Programs and Services, that is scheduled for the 2004-2005 fiscal year but is still being tinkered with daily.

The new state education funding formula, which was passed in 1996, is based on what schools should cost instead of what schools spend, said Schlikin. The formula factors in student populations and state cost averages, and would be phased in over five years. At the end of 2009-2010 under EPS, the state would reach its education funding benchmark of 55 percent.

“The biggest problem I see with this whole EPS monster is that the state isn’t making it easy to understand,” said town Councilman Oliver Emery. “And all the power will be in Augusta.”

Town council members passed a resolution shortly after the June referendum passed that publicly declared their intent to return at least 90 percent of additional state funds to taxpayers. That tax relief amount would be calculated after the school receives its adjusted state funding.

Town Manager Dana Lee pointed out that Mechanic Falls’ tax rate, $29.20 per $1,000 of assessed property value, is among the highest in Maine.

Lee presented information Wednesday that showed a possible property tax reduction of 8 or 9 mills if the state’s education funding reached the full 55 percent required by the June referendum and using the new EPS funding formula.

However, Lee cautioned officials against a false sense of security, because revaluations will raise property assessments to 100 percent of current market values. That could still amount to a possible increase on a property owner’s tax bill.

“I thought it would be helpful to have this discussion now before we actually see a check from the state,” said Lee. “I didn’t want anyone to have mixed signals.”