NORWAY — Town Manager David Holt said he’s stunned that local taxpayers will have to pick up more than $275,000 of the Oxford Hills School District budget in 2012-13.
“It was a shock. I was taken aback,” Town Manager David Holt told SAD 17 Superintendent Rick Colpitts at Thursday night’s selectmen’s meeting.
Colpitts attended to explain why Norway would be one of the towns carrying the brunt of the local share.
The proposed $35,162,603 budget will go to the school board for a vote Monday night. The Budget Committee unanimously voted to support it.
The budget represents a 1.48 percent increase in expenditures over the current budget of the 2012 budget of $34,650,792. And it would trigger a $964,616 increase in local assessments over this fiscal year, which ends June 30.
The increases in local assessments range from from $661 in Oxford to $278,267 in Norway.
The numbers have Norway officials and residents reeling.
Colpitts told selectmen that Norway is carrying the highest percentage of the local share this year because the state valuation of Norway property went up. The valuation number is based on a two-year-old number, he said.
“It’s assumed you can pay more than others,” Colpitts said.
He said that although the district spends less than the state requires under its Essential Programs and Services model, it has been able to make up that difference the past few years using federal funds, such and those from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. With those funds now gone and a state mandate that says next year the district must pick up 100 percent of the required educational funding under EPS, the towns must now pay a higher share of the costs.
“This is cruel,” Holt said of the formula.
“It’s important to us that you know we made every effort we could make to keep the budget down without destroying the school system,” school board member Don Gouin of Norway said.
If the school board adopts the budget Monday, a public hearing and meeting will occur at 7 p.m. June 7 at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School in Paris. The budget validation referendum will take place June 12 in all eight towns, including Harrison, Otisfield, Waterford and West Paris.
ldixon@sunjournal.com
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