KENNEBUNK — Officials of Regional School Unit 21 have announced a near $600,000 increase in state school subsidies will be used to offset local taxes in Kennebunk, Kennebunkport and Arundel, the three towns that compose the district.

RSU 21 has received an additional $572,978 in state funding for the coming school year, Superintendent Katie Hawes said in a release Monday, the result of a budget stalemate over education at the beginning of the month. That stalemate resulted in a three-day government shutdown, ending on July 4.

Maine schools will see $162 million in additional funding over the next two years, of which $48 million is being distributed for the 2017-2018 school year. The remaining $114 million is slated for the 2018-2019 school year.

According to Hawes, voters within the school district approved, at the request of the RSU 21 School Board, during the District Budget Referendum, to use any additional subsidy to reduce local taxes. Voters overwhelmingly approved a near $45.8 million district-wide budget for the 2017-2018 school year.

“We built a fiscally responsible budget that provides the necessary funding to maintain existing programs and to support the school construction projects,” Hawes said. “With the unknown state funding, school districts were given the option to vote to keep any additional money provided or to return that money to the taxpayers.”

The following amounts reflect the reduction in local taxes to each of the three towns. The increase in state education funding returns this amount of money back to the taxpayers in each town:

• Arundel: $81,932
• Kennebunk: $404,268
• Kennebunkport: $86,778

Voters in Kennebunk approved a 12.8 million general government budget on June 13, in a 1,396-303 vote. Just under $4.5 million of that budget will come from estimated revenues; $100,000 from the unassigned general fund balance; $4,000 from the restricted trust fund balance; and the remaining through assessment.

Hawes said the RSU 21 School Board of DIrectors will vote to approve the amount on Aug. 7, after which each town will determine how and when tax bills will be adjusted.

“We are pleased to be a district that will receive additional funding and to have the opportunity to return those funds to the taxpayers in our three communities. Nearly 60 districts in Maine did not see any change as a result of the legislative action,” Hawes said. “While we cannot predict what our funding will be for the 2018-2019 school year, we hope this provides our taxpayers some additional relief.”

— Staff Writer Alan Bennett can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 329 or abennett@journaltribune.com.