LEWISTON — City councilors did not discuss the proposed school budget at Tuesday’s meeting, instead spending more than 90 minutes discussing the proposed city budget, which included placing public bathrooms in different locations around the city.
Councilors debated how useful the public bathrooms would be.
Some councilors hope the bathrooms would be used by homeless people, while others were skeptical that it would reduce the frequency of human waste found in public spaces.
There is one more council meeting before the May 14 school budget referendum. At that council meeting, the School Committee’s proposed $111.19 million budget may be discussed. It is unclear if councilors will request that the committee further reduce the budget.
Based on what the committee is proposing, the local contribution would be $33.84 million, including the adult education budget. It would raise the property tax rate for education to $14.56 from $12.31 per $1,000 of assessed property value.
The state subsidy is expected to be $72.67 million.
School officials have had to navigate a budget proposal that was hit by higher expenses for staffing, Lewiston Regional Technical Center, private school funding and other factors. The Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds will end next school year, resulting in less government funding.
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