GRAY – SAD 15 directors unanimously voted against endorsing the Taxpayer Bill of Rights on Wednesday, calling it flawed.

Director Tod Bennett of Gray left his seat “to speak as a citizen at the podium.”

“It’s basically dishonest, un-American and broken, if we look at our Bill of Rights that guides this nation,” he said comparing TABOR to the federal document.

“It’s a deceptive name, false advertising,” he said. “Votes are not equal. TABOR says if you want to exceed the mathematical vote, you have to do so by a two-thirds majority. I think it’s un-American.”

“We in SAD 15 have been passing budgets better and better each year,” Bennett said. “We commit to public participation. You have control that some people want to take away,” he said, citing the district’s Budget Advisory Committee.

Board member Will Burrows of Gray said, “The underlying legislation is so complex that no one understands what it means. This is a highly flawed piece of legislation.” He said the public should get engaged in the public process instead.

“People need to do that if they want government to work for them,” Burrows said.

Chairman Alan Rich of New Gloucester said, “It isn’t about taxes at all. It’s basically an attempt of people more libertarian than I to reduce government spending.”

Rich said the school budget pie is 80 percent personnel and 15 percent fixed costs. Impacts from TABOR, if passed, would defer maintenance and cut jobs, he said.

Terry Towle, director of Finance and Operations for the district, said the impact of TABOR for SAD 15, based on calculations from the past four years of budgets, would reduce spending a total of $3,097,999.

“We have increased state subsidy. We returned subsidy to the taxpayers to reduce our assessment,” Rich said. “The proposal is flawed, and it says go pass it and we’ll fix it afterwards. That’s a horrible way.”