AUBURN – The School Committee is recommending a $31.8 million budget for next year, up nearly 7 percent over the current budget.
If approved by the City Council, the city would have to give schools almost $1.3 million more. But because Auburn is still calculating recent revaluations, it remains unclear exactly how that higher contribution would affect the property tax rate.
In a workshop Wednesday night, several committee members said they didn’t like voting on the budget when they didn’t have specific tax information.
“We’re all kind of inching toward this budget without knowing where our revenues are,” committee member Theodore Belitsos said. “Are we asking too much? Too little? Who knows?”
After more than an hour of discussion, the committee voted unanimously to approve the budget and send it to the City Council for consideration.
The $31.8 million recommendation is just over $2 million more than this year’s $29.7 budget. School officials said most of the increase comes from contracted pay raises, increases in health insurance costs and a 42 percent increase in fuel costs. Officials also set aside $200,000 – a 157 percent increase – for computers at all grade levels. The state’s new funding formula will help the school system pay for the new technology.
For the first time, the school system also added the Regional Education Treatment Center into its budget. By doing so, officials said, the school system will get more state aid.
The recommended budget does not ask for layoffs and does not cut any programs. It does call for the Franklin Alternative School to move to the Chamberlain Building, which was used by the superintendent’s office until it moved to the new Auburn Hall late last year. The current Franklin building would be closed.
The City Council will vote on the budget in the coming weeks. It can approve a lower budget figure, but only the School Committee can make specific cuts.
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