HARPSWELL

The School Administrative District 75 Finance Committee is taking its $34.3 million draft 2013-14 budget on the road, starting tonight with the first public budget forum in Harpswell.

The draft plan is up $955,033 from the current budget.

But even though the total is higher, the budget contains $787,559 in cuts — including to art, physical education and world language teaching positions — if passed as is.

And the plan also would increase by $494,686 the amount SAD 75 towns must pay, with three of the four district towns seeing increases:

— Bowdoin, increase of $86,084;

— Harpswell, increase of $126,817;

— Topsham, increase of $292,733; and

— Bowdoinham, decrease of $10,678.

The state is projecting an increase of $714,549 in state subsidy — $567,117 more than the original 2012-13 budget prior to a $147,482 curtailment.

But Gov. Paul LePage has proposed shifting to local districts half of the $28 million cost to fund teacher retirement. That would add $492,291 in new costs for SAD 75, of which only an estimated $191,437 would be reimbursed by the state.

SAD 75 Superintendent Brad Smith said Monday the state would only pay 39 percent of the retirement costs in SAD 75 — leaving the district a $300,854 bill it has never had to pay before.

Smith also learned Monday the district’s Anthem health insurance plan will increase 11 percent — an additional $300,000 more than the 4 percent increase it budgeted for.

“Costs continue to go up,” Finance Committee Chairman Scott McKernan said. “Last year, we got to the point where we simply could not cut anymore and we had to, grudgingly, increase the local share.”

“Last year was tough,” McKernan said. “This year is even tougher because we have that, and we also have the shifting of costs coming from Augusta.”

There is also the issue of the charter schools and the impact they might have on enrollment.

A new Harpswell-based charter school is slated to open in September. Smith has budgeted for 20 students leaving SAD 75 for charter schools, at a cost of $163,000.

Clouding the current budget climate, McKernan said, is that cities and towns don’t know their state revenue sharing figures, or if the circuit breaker and homestead exemptions will trimmed, as proposed in the LePage budget.

“We’re trying to go through this (budget) as clearly and as openly as we can, keeping in mind that … our capability for absorbing cuts without doing drastic damage to our programs is considerably limited,” McKernan said.

With $787,559 in reductions included in this draft budget — including a half-time physical education and half-time art teacher at the high school; and two full-time world language positions, effectively eliminating the Chinese program — there is still much to discuss.

“We probably aren’t even looking at a budget that will be adopted by the state until late spring; we’ll be voting on a budget that will be our best guess of what we’re going to need,” Smith said. “And I really do think we’ve cut as much as we can afford to cut.”

Tonight’s forum will start at 6:30 p.m. at Harpswell Community School, 308 Harpswell Islands Road.

Budget forums will then be held at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 2 at Woodside Elementary School in Topsham; and at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 4 at Bowdoinham Community School.

SAD 75 BUDGET

¦ TONIGHT’S FORUM will
start at 6:30 p.m. at Harpswell Community School,
308 Harpswell Islands Road.
Budget forums will then be
held at:
¦ TOPSHAM, 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 2, Woodside Elementary School
¦ BOWDOINHAM, 6:30 p.m.
Thursday, April 4, Bowdoinham Community School