CAPE ELIZABETH – Cape voters approved a $22.5 million budget for the 2013-14 school year at referendum May 14, while overwhelmingly declaring they want the annual validation process to continue for another three years.

Because Cape Elizabeth has a Town Council form of government, voters do not ordinarily get a say on spending, as is the case where legislative authority rests in the public at town meeting. However, in 2007 the state Legislature deemed that voters in all municipalities would get to weigh in on the school side of the annual budget.

Voters also get to decide every three years if they want to continue to have the final say on the school budget, or once again leave that work to councilors, who approved the budget April 29. By a vote of 702-291, 70.7 percent of those who voted said they want to continue the validation vote process.

The budget passed by a slightly smaller margin, 625-377, with 62.4 percent in favor of the $22.5 million budget.

The vote also included an advisory question, that might have been used to help guide the Town Council is decided what number to bring back to voters if the school budget had been rejected.

On that measure, 320 voters, or 32.7 percent, said $22.5 million is too much to spend on public education in Cape Elizabeth. The majority, 441, or 45 percent, deemed the budget “acceptable,” while 218, or 22.3 percent, said the budget was “too low.”

According to Town Clerk Debra Lane, the unofficial tally of 1,003 ballots cast represents a turnout among registered votes in Cape of 13 percent. Lane said just 33 votes where case via absentee ballot. The school budget validation vote has not stood by itself on a spring ballot in Cape since 2009. In that vote, 2,304 residents participated, for a turnout rate of 29 percent.

Cape Elizabeth’s approved school budget for the fiscal year to start July 1 is $22,528,078. That’s up 3.5 percent from $21,765,817 for the current year and accounts for 46 cents of a projected 56-cent increase in the overall tax rate.