LIVERMORE FALLS — The Regional School Unit 73 budget approval process this year will be different than it was the past two years, with some items to be voted on only at the district budget meeting next week.

The district budget meeting will be held 6 p.m. Thursday, April 7, at Spruce Mountain Middle School. The district budget referendum vote will be held 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 26, in the towns of Jay, Livermore and Livermore Falls.

“The last two years we had a budget hearing, so the rules were different on that,” Superintendent Scott Albert said March 25. “All 21 articles will be discussed and voted on at the budget meeting on the 7th. After that night however, only articles 1-14 will go to the referendum [vote on the 26th]. They will be Question 1.”

Question 1 on the referendum ballot asks, “Do you favor approving the RSU 73 budget for the upcoming school year that was adopted at the latest RSU budget meeting?”

The district’s overall budget for 2022-23 is up $1.42 million or 6.7% from 2021-22. No changes have been made since it was first presented in February, Albert said. “The big increase is in special education which we don’t have a lot of control over,” he noted. “Our budget would only be up 3.87% without that.”

“All the other articles, whatever is voted on (April 7) stays,” Albert noted. “I want people to understand because one of those is the HollandStrong tennis courts question and I don’t want people to not show up that night thinking they still have a vote or a say. They are not and that’s going to upset them. That’s a huge piece.”

Originally Albert thought there would be five separate questions on the referendum ballot with HollandStrong being one of them.

Albert said the district’s lawyer told him, “you really are not supposed to do it that way because it is not part of the state election year.”

“There are different rules if you have the vote the same time as a state election, if you don’t have it with a state election,” Albert said he was told.

“The only other question on the [April 26] ballot will be whether people want to continue with the voting process of having a budget meeting, then having a referendum,” Albert said. “That has to go on the ballot every three years, they will decide if they want to do both. Right now we do both. Some districts do just the referendum, some do just the budget meeting.

“In some ways I think it is more work for us but it is safer,” he noted. “It gives people a chance who might not feel comfortable saying no in a public session to say it behind closed doors in a vote.”

The HollandStrong tennis court question to be decided April 7 would establish a $45,000 reserve fund for the project with up to that amount being expended as needed.

“We don’t know if they can spend it by June 2023,” Albert said. “Even if they get the money, the bid process takes a while; we know how long construction is taking right now. So if that’s voted on the money would sit there without having to go back to the taxpayers for another vote next year.”

That is different from the formation of a $100,000 capital reserve account for building maintenance costs using available fund balances, he said. “If we do not spend that this year, because it is not for a specific project we would have to put another question next year to spend it.”

Albert stressed the HollandStrong project would be asking for new money while the reserve account for building maintenance uses carryover from funding approved by taxpayers in the past.

“We’re not asking for an extra $100,000 so taxes wouldn’t go up,” he said. “We just want to have it sitting there, help us in case, with everything else going out there in the world.”

Also to be decided April 7 is funding for the school nutrition and adult education programs, continuation of the tuition contract with Fayette, transferring amounts greater than five percent between cost centers so long as the budget isn’t increased, and expenditures of grants and other receipts.

RSU 73 is requesting $182,887 more from Livermore, $127,530 more from Livermore Falls and $1.67 million less from Jay this year. Amounts for each town are determined based 80% on valuation and 20% on student population.

Livermore residents owning a $100,000 home would pay $83 more should the budget be approved, with Livermore Falls residents owning a similar home paying $73 more. Jay taxes should not increase based on the school budget. Those figures do not include the HollandStrong tennis courts.

“In some towns schools are the big spenders, where the costs are,” Albert said. “This is the third year in a row we are asking for less taxes from Jay for schools.

“Can you afford $83 more this year, it’s your decision,” he noted. “You need to understand what that cost is.”