AUBURN — If voters approve the Auburn school budget on June 11, it would put Auburn in a better position to meet a new law that will eventually penalize school districts that are under-funding education, Auburn School Committee Chairman Tom Kendall told the Sun Journal on Wednesday.

The tax increase would be the first of three successive increases Auburn must make in order to comply with a new state law signed May 30 by Gov. Paul LePage, Kendall said.

That law requires all schools to fund education at a set minimum level by the 2016-2017 school year.

In early March, Superintendent Katy Grondin proposed a $37.6 million budget, a 4.8 percent increase over the previous year. Grondin’s budget would have meant cuts the School Committee didn’t want so it asked her to come back with a larger budget.

On May 15, Grondin delivered a $38.37 million budget, a 6.9 percent increase over last year. The committee voted for that budget and sent it to the Auburn City Council. The council warned the budget was too big but sent it to voters to decide.

One of the major drivers in asking for an increase, Kendall said, “is not waiting until we have to cover a $3 million gap, but to step us up a piece of the way which we’re going to have to reach in three years so it’s not an incredible hammer.”

If voters reject the higher budget on Tuesday, “we’re going to get hit by this,” he said.

Taxpayer advocate and former City Councilor Ron Potvin disagreed. The new law is all the more reason “not to increase this budget 6.9 percent,” Potvin said.

For years, the state has told communities they could under-fund the local portion of the Essential Programs and Services funding formula because the state wasn’t fully funding its obligation to school districts.

“The state is deciding to reneg,” Potvin said. “But the School Committee’s budget isn’t just to bring up EPS. They’re still spending beyond their means.”

The School Department could take steps to harness spending, Potvin said, including using “its large fund balance” or cutting programs and staff. “This is the time to be prudent,” he said. “The reality is, taxpayers cannot afford to subsidize this situation.”

State: Change will start in 2014-15

Under the new law, L.D. 667, school districts in 2016-17 will have to pay 100 percent of their required share of EPS to get their full share of education money from the state, Maine Education Deputy Commissioner Jim Rier said Wednesday.

A Maine Department of Education webpage shows several local districts are under-funding according to the EPS standard, including Auburn by $2.2 million; Lewiston by $3.1 million; and Oxford Hills by $2.28 million.

Those figures are based on past rather than proposed budgets.

Districts that spend less than the required EPS formula will get less money from the state, Rier said. If a district under-funds by 5 percent, it would get 5 percent less than what it would have in state education money, he said.

In Lewiston and Auburn, where the majority of school spending comes from the state, “that’s a lot of money,” said Geoff Herman of the Maine Municipal Association.

According to Rier, districts that are under-funding would not have to spend more next year. The change would start in 2014-15. That year, districts would have to make up 33 percent of their EPS gap, and 66 percent the next year.

By 2016-17, districts spending less than required under the EPS “will need to commit to a higher share,” Rier said. “If they don’t, it’ll eventually hurt them.”

The Maine Municipal Association criticized the new law, saying the state is telling towns and cities they have to fully fund education while the state does not.

The state passed a law in 1983 to fund 55 percent of K-12 education costs, but it has never met that obligation, Herman said. Today, the state is paying 45 percent. “It isn’t fair,” he said. “Towns and cities don’t have the flexibility to under-fund, but the state does. The state says, ‘Yes, that’s right, but tough.’”

Kendall acknowledged that Auburn does not have to start spending more on EPS next year. If the proposed school budget passes on Tuesday, Auburn will still be under-funding EPS by $1.5 million, down from the current $2.2 million gap, Grondin said.

With essentially flat funding from the Auburn City Council and taxpayers from 2008-09 through 2011-12, Auburn schools have operated reasonably successfully, Kendall said.

“But we’ve been under-funded in regards to what EPS says we should be funding. Do we have to have it (next year)? No.” But if spending isn’t increased by 2016, “the state’s going to take money away. That’s a reality,” Kendall said.

“Now (in 2016) I’m in a panic mode because that’s a big hit,” he said. “If you don’t make that EPS level they’re going to reduce your funding by $2 for every $1 the local district is under-funding.”

Lewiston Superintendent Bill Webster said he had mixed emotions about the new law. On one hand he’d like to see more money for Lewiston schools. “We can put any amount of increase to good use.”

But, he added, “What can Lewiston afford?”

He estimated the law will require Lewiston to raise roughly an additional $500,000 in local property taxes each year for three years.

bwashuk@sunjournal.com

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