BRUNSWICK

Brunswick voters approved the $37.69 million school budget overwhelmingly by a vote of 827 to 350 following months of cuts and negotiations with the town council.

Negotiations had a rocky path with the council first requesting the School Board find $410,000 in cuts, followed by an additional $85,000 — the price of a scheduled paving project at the high school.

The School Board rebuffed the additional $85,000 and the council conceded with Council Chair Sarah Brayman calling an extra $5 to $10 on the average tax bill in the eleventh hour a “foolhardy errand.”

In all, savings from the extra cuts amounts to a 3.2 percent increase over last year as opposed to 3.63 percent in the first draft set before the town council. The anticipated tax increase has also been lowered from a 2.67 percent increase to only 1.64 percent.

Brunswick voters also decided to keep voting on the school budget by referendum for the next three years by a vote of 832 to 339.

Lisbon

After four failed school budget validation votes last year before voters in Lisbon approved a 2015-16 budget, the proposed 2016-17 school budget was approved on the first try Tuesday by a 284-175 vote.

Approved was a $15,325,540 spending plan — a decrease of $31,856. The local portion funded through taxes is $5,994,083 which is an increase of $482,058 or 8.7 percent.

The repeated budget validation referendum failures preceding the eventual budget approval in January, were due to a large base of voters who believed the school budget contained too many reductions. Tuesday, there were 122 voters who checked “too high” for the budget and 73 indicated they think the budget is too low.

Lisbon voters also decided to continue the budget validation referendum process for another three years by a large margin vote of 383-70.

Lisbon had 463 ballots cast out of 6,445 registered voters, a 7.2 percent voter turnout.

RSU 1

Voters in the four towns making up Regional School Unit 1 approved the $28.3 million spending plan with a 1,032-312 vote. The RSU is made up of Arrowsic, Bath, Phippsburg and Woolwich. Under the proposed spending plan, total expenses reflect an increase of 3.39 percent or $927,606 over the current budget. The local contribution is increasing 3.44 percent.

RSU 1 voters also decided to continue with the school validation referendum for the next three years by voting 939-366.

RSU 2

Voters in Regional School Unit 2 approved a $26.45 million budget, a 0.4 percent increase. Four of the five member towns reporting election results approved the budget for a total of 1,992- 333. All four towns also voted to hold budget validation referendums for another three years. Dresden’s local share was projected to be increasing $63,982 and Richmond’s local education spending by $187,278.

RSU 5

In Regional School Unit 5, voters in Freeport and Durham supported an overall budget of $30.9 million for the communities of Freeport, Durham and Pownal.

The budget passed in Durham by a slim vote of 198-115.

In Freeport, the voters were overwhelmingly in favor of the budget, 1,006- 262.

In Pownal, voters approved the budget 107-78.

The budget represents an increase of 5.15 percent or $1.52 million. However, the district will receive a state subsidy increase of $501,815 for an impact on each town of $278,416 or a 1.19 percent tax increase.

SAD 75

Voters in School Administrative District 75 approved a $37.57 million spending plan for 2016-17 by a vote of 1,454-473.

Voters in Bowdoin, Bowdoinham, Harpswell and Topsham attended a district wide budget meeting at the end of May and adopted a $37,574,538 budget to go before voters Tuesday. The total local share is $22 million — an increase of $489,021 or 2.22 percent. The overall budget is a 1.77 percent or $652,395 increase.

The second questions voters found on the school ballot asked if they want to continue voting via budget validation referendum for the next three years. Voters in SAD 75 voted in favor of continuing the vote 1,307-571.

West Bath SAU

West Bath voters approved a $3.37 million school budget for their school administrative unit by a vote of 181-26. The spending plan is a $20,000 increase from the current fiscal year.

This is the second budget the West Bath SAU has adopted since the town withdrew from RSU 1. Despite some budget increases including in the school budget, Town Administrator Adam Garland said recently he doesn’t expect the tax rate to go up do to new valuation in town. dmoore@timesrecord.com dmcintire@timesrecord.com