The Kennebec Journal

March 15

Even without voter approval, Sheepscot RSU has working budget

F. Gerard Nault

Voters from the eight towns in the Sheepscot Valley Regional School Unit have not approved a budget for the school year ending June 30, in spite of four attempts at the ballot box.

Classes, however, are being held at all RSU 12 schools, payrolls have been met, and bills have been paid. This happens, thanks largely to the language in the consolidation law passed by the Legislature as part of the last budget bill. It also identifies a glaring shortcoming in that language.

Section 1486 discusses a two-step process: a budget is adopted at a regional school unit budget meeting and then it goes to the unit's voters in a referendum, until that budget is approved. There's no mention how many times this must be attempted, so theoretically it could go on indefinitely.

The law provides no means to force a conclusion when an impasse is reached, and that could be trouble.

But however inconclusive this sounds, the RSU is not left without a budget by which it can operate.

Section 1487 states that if voters do not approve a budget, the one adopted at the regional school unit budget meeting is the operating budget until voters approve one, thus providing a means to operate schools and educate students in the interim.

Finally, even without a voter-approved budgets, municipalities can commit property taxes on the basis of the latest budget approved at the regional school district budget meeting. That provision in law allows towns to raise funds to pay assessments submitted by the RSU in the same way as if the budget was approved.

These last two points, about the operating budget and tax commitment are important to the Department of Education.

The department has suggested informally an RSU may end the fiscal year without an approved budget and not incur penalties because an operating budget was adopted and in place. The law also allows tax commitments to go forward so funds can lawfully be assessed and collected from taxpayers to satisfy local funding for education.

Lacking voter approval, everything else is in place to allow normal operations to be conducted in schools and municipalities, and the law has been satisfied.

Even though the 2010 budget lacks voter approval, the unit's Board of Directors has directed that a budget for the upcoming year be compiled and presented, since parents expect the RSU to be ready to welcome students on the first day of school.

Principals, administrators and central office staff are compiling a budget for fiscal year 2011. School Board Finance Committee members soon will begin to review the budget proposal and consider recommending an amount to the entire board. A regional budget meeting will adopt the budget, and the town's voters will cast ballots.

The vote should be scheduled before July 1 so an approved amount would allow municipal tax collectors to commit taxes in a timely manner.

Earlier, it was mentioned that the language in statute has glaring shortcomings. There is no sure closure for the budget-approval process, and no ability to reconsider a decision made by the budget meeting or voters. The Legislature's Education Committee shot down attempts to correct the budget closure and reconsideration shortcomings earlier in the year.

A statute that lacks resolution of annoying problems should not hinder the orderly support of education. So, the Legislature needs to fix the statute.

F. Gerard Nault is chairman of the Finance Committee of Sheepscot Valley Regional School Unit 88, Erskine Road, Windsor. He can be reached at 549-7127 (home) 242-5120 (cellular)