POLAND – The Poland Regional High School Committee has voted to support a resolution opposing the Taxpayer Bill of Rights. The resolution was put together by the Maine School Management Association at the request of several schools for a sample.

Committee members said TABOR would do a great disservice to local schools and would take away a community’s local control.

“We’re going to hurt our schools,” said committee member Dave Griffiths, “and we’ll be hurting the people who don’t have a vote: the students.” He said he is afraid voters will be lured by the idea of TABOR and many will not consider the consequences of it. “It’s too easy, it looks too seductive,” he said.

Many members of the committee spoke about their funding worries if TABOR should pass. The resolution describes the process to get additional funding as “cumbersome, complex and costly.”

Many opponents of TABOR think that the two-thirds majority vote required at a town meeting, school budget meeting, or a school budget referendum for any additional funding will make it all but impossible to acquire extra funding when schools need it.

Another concern that arises from the required two-third vote, as opposed to a simple majority, is that many people think it’s unfair. The resolution states that such a requirement is “undemocratic,” and essentially makes the vote of a person opposed to a school budget increase count more than those in favor of it.

The committee’s seven members voted as follows: Chairwoman Laurie Levine, Norm Davis, Kim Moody, Mary Ella Jones, Dave Griffiths and Karen Whalen voted to support the resolution opposing TABOR. Scott Sawyer abstained from the vote.