03/12/2014

Cape's 2015 preliminary school-subsidy projection down $87,000 from this year

Cape Elizabeth will lose $87,000 in general purpose aid to education next year according to preliminary estimates published by the state Department of Education this week.

Spreadsheets posted on the department's website on Monday, March 10, 2014, show a preliminary state allocation of $2.5 million for Cape Elizabeth, a little more than $87,000 less than this year's subsidy of $2.62 million, a reduction of 3.3 percent. The site is clear that the amounts are preliminary and subject to change per legistlative action.

The School Board is currently working on a $23.2 million budget proposal for 2014-15, one that assumes flat state funding for the coming year. "It's a significant change," said Michael Moore, chair of the School Board's finance committee, at the board's meeting March 11, 2014, where he urged taxpayers to contact state legislators. "The state had agreed to fund approximately 55 percent of the education in the state of Maine, they have not done so and at the same time they are shifting costs to local districts," Moore said. "It's a preliminary estimate but it is definitely going in the wrong direction," he said.

The board will hold its next budget workshop at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 18 at the High School library and learning commons. Still unknown to the board are costs for employee health-insurance premiums and the outcome of negotiations with the Cape Elizabeth Education Association, Moore said.