BIDDEFORD — On Thursday, for the third time, Biddeford voters said no at the ballot box to the school budget. The vote was 1,035 against and 902 in support of the $32.6 million passed by city council last month.
As to why the budget failed again, Superintendent of Schools Jeremy Ray said, “This is a tough economy and tough times.”
Because of the economy, financially “people are very conservative right now,” said Mayor Alan Casavant, who is also the school committee chairman. “They can’t absorb more hits” to the property tax rate.
In response to a question regarding the amount of the budget, of the 1,940 ballots cast, 1,153 voters said it was too high and 614 said it was too low.
“Taxpayers sent us a message again, the budget is too high,” said Ray.
While Thursday’s referendum was the third for a vote on the fiscal year 2013 school budget, that began July 1, it was the second time voters were asked to approve the same budget figure.
On Aug. 16, residents also rejected the $32.6 million budget.
In response to that referendum failure, Ray had presented to both the school committee and city council a budget that was approximately $500,000 lower.
The school committee voted to recommend the lesser amount to the council, but council members rejected it.
At that time, some city council members said they felt that the vote in August and an earlier one in June had low turnouts ad were not representative of the community.
“The council has consistently misread public sentiment,” said Casavant.
“They put the same question out again,” he said. “People were angry at that.”
Another factor in the referendum outcome, said Casavant, was that property tax bills ”“ which included a tax rate increase ”“ had recently been mailed to Biddeford property owners. “People were voting with their wallets.”
Ray said he thinks the budget failed again because, “The public has one avenue to share its opinion on the budget process, it’s on the school budget.”
Prior to recommending another budget amount to the school committee, said Ray, “we’ll have to look at what’s happening (in) the schools and have conversations.”
In the meantime, he said, the district’s schools are “in a good place ”¦ we’re operating as best as we can.”
— Staff Writer Dina Mendros can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 324 or dmendros@journaltribune.com.
Comments are not available on this story. Read more about why we allow commenting on some stories and not on others.
We believe it's important to offer commenting on certain stories as a benefit to our readers. At its best, our comments sections can be a productive platform for readers to engage with our journalism, offer thoughts on coverage and issues, and drive conversation in a respectful, solutions-based way. It's a form of open discourse that can be useful to our community, public officials, journalists and others.
We do not enable comments on everything — exceptions include most crime stories, and coverage involving personal tragedy or sensitive issues that invite personal attacks instead of thoughtful discussion.
You can read more here about our commenting policy and terms of use. More information is also found on our FAQs.
Show less