POLAND — Puzzled that from year to year, school budgets affect their property taxes in different — and apparently arbitrary — ways, officials from Mechanic Falls, Minot and Poland met Wednesday to try to get a picture of how the Maine school funding formula works.

 

They also want to know the extent that the three towns’ portions of the “additional local funds” in RSU 16 might be causing the fluctuations, and which towns are most grievously affected.

 

A comparison of how the past two years’ budgets have affected property taxes in the three towns follows:

 

* For the current school year, the budget increase voters approved had the effect of increasing property taxes on a house valued at a standard $100,000 by $86.36 in Mechanic Falls, by $55.48 in Minot, and by $6.20 in Poland.

 

* A year ago, the budget increase approved by voters increased property taxes on a house valued at that same amount by $13.74 in Mechanic Falls, by $49.66 in Minot, and by $20.75 in Poland.

 

* The year before that, Poland had been the town that saw its share jump the most.

 

Gerald “Jake” Clockedile, a retired superintendent who has considerable experience in trying to explain the intricacies of school funding, led the group through a step-by-step analysis of the calculations involved in determining what the district ought to raise as its contribution in paying to support essential programs and service, and what part the state would pay.

 

Clockedile also detailed the effect of the locally adopted formula, whereby the “additional local funds” are assessed based 90 percent on property valuation and 10 percent pupil count, has on the three towns.

 

“Bottom line, three things determine how much money you’ll be getting from the state: the number of pupils you have, the state valuation for your property, and the size of the pie — how much the state decides it will spend statewide. This is what determines most of what you pay, not the local 90/10, which applies to a relatively small amount,” Clockedile said.

 

Town officials, several of whom had originally figured the locally adopted formula for cost sharing ought to be tinkered with, walked away with new insight.

 

“I didn’t get it all, but now I can begin to explain it to folks,” Town Manager John Hawley said. “It is quite clear Mechanic Falls was hit because its valuation went up. But I really wonder at the state’s valuation.”

 

“It would appear that it is not about the 90/10 formula. Given the whole picture, that’s just the ear of the dog,” Poland Selectman Steve Robinson said.