AUGUSTA (AP) – Opponents of the proposed spending cap Mainers will vote on this fall claimed Wednesday that passage would result in budget cuts in nearly 40 percent of Maine’s school districts.

But supporters quickly dismissed the claim, saying the proposal never requires a budget cut and, at worst, only obliges a town with a shrinking population to have a flat-funded budget.

On Nov. 7, Mainers will decide whether the state should adopt a Taxpayer Bill of Rights. Known as TABOR, the proposal would limit the growth of spending at the state, county, municipal and school district levels to the annual rate of inflation and population growth.

It would require voter approval for any tax or fee increases.

In news conferences in Portland and Bangor on Wednesday, TABOR’s foes said the tax cap formula in the proposal would result in budget decreases for nearly 40 percent of Maine school administrative units.

Larry Littlefield, superintendent of the Kittery schools, said 84 schools and school districts would have to make cuts in their existing budgets, some rather drastically.

“TABOR would disproportionately affect smaller and mostly rural Maine schools,” Littlefield said. “Many of them are already struggling to provide quality education for their students. But many large schools won’t escape the impact of TABOR either.”

The predictions are based on an analysis by the Maine Municipal Association using figures for fiscal 2006.

Critics of TABOR also said it’s wrong for TABOR to take gains and losses in enrollments into account in computing school costs.

“Adding or taking away a student does not automatically equate to an additional staff or fewer staff or more heating costs or less,” said Rob Walker of the Maine Education Association.

The Maine Heritage Policy Center, which supports TABOR, said that most of Maine’s school districts are neither school administrative districts nor consolidated districts, and therefore have no school-specific spending growth limit.

And only 15 percent of those districts would potentially be flat-funded under the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, and only if their student enrollment drops more than 4.5 percent in one year, the conservative public policy group said.

“We know they’re going the cry wolf and say the house is burning down,” the TABOR campaign’s Roy Lenardson said. Describing the proposal as fair and reasonable, Lenardson said TABOR acknowledges that expenses might rise and that’s why it provides for override votes allowing tax increases.

Copy the Story Link