HARRISON — Campaign signs for the June election are conspicuously absent here, a reflection of the fact that there are no locally contested races for public office.

Elections on Tuesday will be followed by the annual town meeting on Wednesday to act on $1.9 million in town spending and $3.4 million in education spending.

Matthew Frank and Richard St. John are running for the two vacancies created by departing Selectmen Eddie Rolfe and Bill Goodwin. Frank is currently a member of the town’s Budget Committee, and St. John is a former selectman.

The polls open at 7 a.m. Tuesday at the town office to elect a moderator and to allow voters to cast their ballots for the selectmen’s seats, as well as write-in votes for vacancies on two boards.

Town Clerk Judy Colburn said she knows of no one who has indicated an interest in the three-year term on the Planning Board, but the current chairman of the Board of Appeals, Doug Wall, has said he is willing to serve another five-year term. Write-in votes may also be cast for the selectmen’s seats. Voters must not only write in the person’s name, they must also check the box beside the person’s name.

A school referendum ballot asks citizens to vote on whether SAD 17 should spend slightly more than $1 million to improve air quality at the Otisfield Community School. The money to pay for the project would come from a state loan of $793,993, of which the district would have to repay $388,500 or 48.9 percent (the balance would be “forgiven” by the state); issuing bonds for $156,666 and taking $62,000 from the district’s capital reserve fund.

A second question on the school ballot asks if voters approve spending slightly more than $100,000 for renovations and improvements to the Harrison Elementary School, Waterford Memorial School and Guy E. Rowe School. This also involves a loan from the state, of which the district would pay back 48.9 percent.

Town Manager Bud Finch said in an interview Thursday the proposed budget would increase taxes slightly but keep the level of town services the same, despite a $245,588 increase in what the town would pay for schools.

Finch said the current tax rate of $9.75 per $1,000 of valuation “will probably end up in the $9.80 to $9.90 range,” depending on what the selectmen establish for an overlay and what the balance forward is when the books close at the end of the fiscal year on June 30.

Finch has been preparing voters for the town meeting by recording an explanation of the 2011-12 budget, which is currently being aired twice a day on Lake Region Cable TV, Channel 7 (check the website, lakeregiontv.org for the broadcast times).

He has also prepared a 28-page explanation of the proposed budget that will be available at the meeting. Although he has made significant changes in the bookkeeping process to more accurately show the costs of individual departments, voters will still be able to compare this year’s spending with proposed spending in each department.

In addition, the “continuing decline in local control over our budget” means there has to be a greater emphasis on long-term planning, Finch said.

“With the greatest portion of our property tax dollars going to budget items outside of our direct control (education 64 percent, county tax 5 percent) combined with efforts in Augusta to reduce funding to communities in order to balance their own budget, we need to concentrate our efforts on what we do have control over.”

Finch said this can be done through two approaches: “cost avoidance and productivity improvement.”

“Cutting our limited municipal services, which could be a necessity if the economy doesn’t begin to improve over the next six to nine months, is not the solution to our taxing issues,” Finch wrote in this year’s annual report.

“Economic issues today are no longer just local, nor for that matter, even state. They are driven by national and global economic trends which has the whole world struggling with similar issues. To meet those changes, we will focus on what we can do locally to make the best of those few things within our control.”

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