TOPSHAM
Declining state subsidies will lead to increased taxes for Maine School Administrative District 75 taxpayers next year. Voters will decide on the 2018-19 spending plan Thursday.
The proposed budget for the next fiscal year calls for $37.9 million in spending, an increase of $538,438, or 1.4 percent over last year’s budget.
Total contributions from the district’s four towns are up to $23.9 million from $23.2 million, an increase of $743,348, or 3.2 percent.
The impact to the tax rate of each town in the district varies:
Topsham would see an increase of $566,100, or 5.84 percent, to a total contribution of $10.2 million;
Bowdoinham is looking at a $120,189 increase, or 4.12 percent, to a total contribution of $3 million;
Bowdoin would see an increase of $74, 913, or 2.63 percent, to a total contribution of $2.9 million;
Harpswell would actually see a decrease of $17,823, to a total contribution of $7.7 million.
The district is looking at a $295,739 reduction in state subsidies for next fiscal year.
Additional spending bumps will come from the replacement of five new buses — $84,479 for leasing costs, which will be covered by a state subsidy, but not until the following fiscal year — and the addition of an elementary school teacher at Williams-Cone, at a cost of $67,324 for salary and benefits.
A subsidy loss for the school-based health clinic at Mt. Ararat High School will require an outlay of $35,329 to maintain the clinic.
The construction of a new Mt. Ararat High School won’t have an impact on next year’s budget. Voters approved the $60.7 million project in March 2017, but the bond for project costs won’t be issued until the spring of 2019.
The district will get a boost from the state to cover the $163,287 cost of its new pre-kindergarten program. The program will be available to 32 students in the first year. There will be one class of 16 at Williams-Cone Elementary School and another classroom of 16 at Midcoast Community Maine Head Start.
Thursday’s district budget meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. at the Orion Performing Arts Center at Mt. Ararat Middle School.
chris@timesrecord.com
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