KINGFIELD – SAD 58 directors will hold a public hearing Tuesday, May 24, on the $9,017,054 budget proposed for 2005-2006.
The figure the district proposes to raise at its referendum on June 14 is $166,128 more than this fiscal year, which ends June 30.
Because the school district and the town have different fiscal years, voters at the June 14 referendum will be asked to raise a total of $3,465,365.65, part of which will cover spending authorized for the current year.
The additional taxation required to meet the proposed budget is about $13,500. The only towns in the district to be asked to pay more are Eustis and Phillips. Payments for neither has gone up by more than 1 percent.
Residents will have a chance to review the numbers at the hearing, which starts at 6:30 p.m. at Mt. Abram High School in Salem.
Superintendent Quenten Clark said Thursday that an unanticipated result of the state’s newly revised educational funding model is that geographically smaller communities are receiving proportionately more money, while rural, geographically larger districts such as SAD 58 are receiving much less.
The consequence is that some communities are enjoying significant tax relief, and poorer rural areas are faced with either raising taxes or dramatically reducing educational services to keep up, Clark said. For example, the cost of heating oil has gone up more than $60,000 this year.
Clark added that another unexpected result of the new funding policy is that it reduces or increases the amount of subsidy received by districts based on the estimated cost of living there. Because Franklin County is considered a lower-income, lower-cost area by the state, SAD 58 and other Franklin County districts are receiving about $125,000 less than the state model recommends. Conversely, counties like Somerset, with higher valuations, will receive proportionately more money.
“If I moved my office from Phillips School to the Kingfield-New Vineyard line, we’d have a million dollars more in subsidies, and that would have cut taxes significantly,” Clark said.
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