On July 7, Scarborough voters will vote on a revised school budget of $38.6 million, one which reflects a 6.8 percent increase in taxpayer funding of the schools. There are at least two very good reasons to vote No/Too High on this revised budget.

The first reason is straightforward – the budget is still too high. An increase of 6.8 percent in taxpayer funding is simply not affordable by many Scarborough residents, especially in view of the 28.8 percent increases they have experienced over the past five years.

Many neighboring cities and towns have been able to achieve school tax rate increases much more in line with the current negligible rate of inflation. For instance, South Portland’s school mil rate increase next year will be 3.5 percent, Portland’s will be 2.3 percent and Cape Elizabeth’s will be 1.3 percent. Scarborough’s school mil rate increase, in contrast, will be 6.2 percent. Again, Scarborough’s elected officials need to give greater weight to taxpayer affordability when crafting the school budget. An increase in excess of 6 percent is simply too high.

A second reason to vote no on July 7 is to register an objection to a flawed budget process.

At its June 24 meeting, the Town Council finalized a proposed new total school funding amount that was $500,000 less than the $39.1 million rejected at the first referendum. It was then the School Board’s responsibility to allocate the $500,000 reduction among specific school programs and expense categories.

The School Board failed miserably in their responsibility to reasonably allocate the funding reduction. Rather than insist upon rigorous reviews of all areas of the school budget, they chose, to a very large extent, to accept only the recommendations put forth by the superintendent. The School Board’s first step was accepting $320,000 of the superintendent’s proposed reductions; many of these were essentially accounting refinements. Then, with much gnashing of teeth, they approved the $180,000 of reductions to extracurricular activities now causing such an uproar. These decisions occurred with minimal pushback by the School Board; there was no insistence on meaningful review of other programs.

The above analysis is, of course, only my opinion. But it is an opinion informed by my attendance at all the School Board Finance Committee meetings at which the $500,000 reduction was discussed. I am not an educator. On the other hand, I have had significant experience in the financial operations of a large not-for-profit organization, and I am very familiar with budget gaming. What I witnessed was classic budget gaming that proposes the reduction or elimination of high-impact programs that will elicit maximum public outcry. This then serves as a diversion from the lack of review of other programs that should have taken place.

But let’s leave my perceptions of the budget process aside and look at the facts. What do the final numbers show? How did the School Board end up allocating the $500,000 reduction among programs? As you will see in the accompanying chart, extracurricular activities suffered a huge reduction –18.6 percent of the category. In contrast, system administration was reduced by 0.3 percent and school administration was not reduced at all. And the student and staff support category was reduced by 0.7 percent.

I believe a thorough review of those areas, representing more than $6.5 million of expenses, might well have identified expense reductions equal to or greater than the $180,000 worth of extracurricular activities now to be given the axe.

But we’ll never know, since the School Board never required a meaningful review of those areas. Instead, eighth-grade sports, the middle school yearbook, the high school band, the Key Club, spring tennis and other activities and sports impacting hundreds of kids will be eliminated. This is not the way an effective and equitable budgeting process should work.

Scarborough voters who want a tax rate that is affordable for all the Town’s residents and who do not believe that kids should be used as pawns in a cynical budget game should vote No and Too High on July 7.

Steve Hanly is a Scarborough resident. Visit his blog or contact him at www.LookOutScarborough.com.