LEWISTON – The one School Committee member several others wanted to question Monday night did not show.

School Committee member Leah Poulin was not there for the regular meeting to hear the financial impact on Lewiston schools if the petition that she and others started passes.

Poulin was one of 10 who initiated a petition drive to kill Lewiston’s new storm-water utility fee. If the group succeeds in getting 1,000 signatures by Jan. 12, the fee would be suspended. Another of the 10 is her husband, Larry Poulin, who is running for the state Legislature.

The cost to Lewiston schools if the fee is suspended could be $1.6 million or more, officials said.

School Committee Chairman James Handy complained that Poulin and others who started the financial firestorm “lacked the fortitude to show and make their case. … It’s nothing but a political move. It’s reprehensible.”

Efforts to reach Leah Poulin weren’t successful, but her husband called the Sun Journal just before 11 p.m. to say his wife was not at the meeting because she had taken pain pills and was in no shape for a meeting. She hurt herself while moving, he said.

He said she helped initiate the petition as a private citizen, not a School Committee member. “It was not political,” he said. When asked about the impact to schools, “she didn’t think about that,” he said.

Larry Poulin said the issue is a city fee and school money should be left alone.

“It’s wrong to go after the school budget,” he said. The action was taken because the fee was wrong, he said.

Speaking before the School Committee on Monday night, Lewiston City Administrator Jim Bennett said if the signatures are gathered, it will mean the city would have to cut $1.9 million from its budget.

The city cannot send out another tax bill. That leaves two options: take out a loan or cut.

“It’s an absolute nightmare,” Bennett said, adding he may be forced to look at what city personnel is required by state law. “It will take us longer to plow roads this winter. You may have to cancel school more often this winter.”

Bennett said he may have to look at what personnel is required by state law. Police are not one of them, he said.

Initially, officials said Lewiston schools’ share of the cut would be about $900,000.

But if $900,000 is cut in the school budget, the city will lose state money for education because the city would be spending less that what a state formula requires local taxpayers to spend on education, said department business manager Dean Flanagin.

The cut would grow to $1.6 million or more when including the loss of state money, said schools superintendent Leon Levesque.

No one yet knows what that impact on schools would be, but it would mean less.

“The question becomes what’s not essential,” said Lewiston High School Principal Gus Leblanc. Even if hockey, football, basketball and softball and every other sport was eliminated at the high school, “they still would be looking for a ton of money,” he said.

School Committee member John Butler said considering Leah Poulin’s School Committee role, her action was “inappropriate.” Providing education to children becomes “very difficult when we don’t know what can happen to our budget because of the action of 10 people,” Butler said. “That’s disturbing to me.”

“As School Committee members we are compelled to understand our action outside the board has an impact,” Handy said. “Someone has a right to sign a petition. I respect that. One also has to consider what are the ramifications.”

Larry Poulin is running for the State House as a Republican against Democrat William Walcott. Fellow petition initiator David Hughes is running as a Republican against Sen. Peggy Rotundo, a Democrat.

Others in the 10 are Bob Stone, Robert Harlow, Kendra Hughes, Michael Marcotte, Ray Poulin, Jay Taylor and Jayson Valrone.

In another report to School Committee members, George Isaacson, lawyer for the school department, reviewed the Taxpayers Bill of Rights referendum on the Nov. 7 ballot, and said if passed it will be bad for Lewiston schools.

Because Lewiston spends less than other districts on education, Lewiston’s spending would be frozen at a lower level and Lewiston schools would never catch up.

“This hits Lewiston across the side of the head in a disproportionate way,” Isaacson said.

The Lewiston and Auburn school committees will hear a debate on TABOR at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Auburn Hall.