Voters in Gorham rejected the recent school budget Tuesday. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

For the first time since the 1980s, Gorham voters rejected a school budget proposal Tuesday that would have increased local taxes by more than 10%.

Now, leaders in the town of 18,000 will have to come up with a new spending plan to send to voters within 45 days. The Town Council already had reduced the draft budget by $800,000 before this week’s election, but some residents said it was still too high, especially for people on fixed incomes.

Out of dozens of proposals across southern Maine, Gorham broke from its history and became the only town to reject its school budget.

It failed 59% to 41%, or 956 to 660 votes. Voter turnout was about 10%, slightly more than average for a school budget vote, Town Clerk Laurie Nordfors said.

“This is not what I was hoping for. We’re going to have to go back and work a little harder to review the budget and see what we can do,” Darryl Wright, the school committee chair, said Wednesday.

The $51.5 million budget would have increased school costs by more than $5 million over this year’s $46.4 million budget. When combined with the $21.7 million municipal budget, the tax rate would have jumped 11%.

On an average home assessed at $400,000, the annual tax bill would have increased by $564, from $5,140 to $5,704.

Rick Lockwood, who attended Gorham schools, believes taxes in town are already too high. The tax bill on his single-family home has gone up significantly in the past couple of years, he said. He didn’t vote Tuesday, but as he talked to a reporter outside the town municipal offices the next morning, he said he feels that town leaders should find a way to lower the school budget before sending it back to voters.

Rick Lockwood, outside the Gorham municipal offices on Wednesday, says town leaders need to find a way to lower the school budget before sending it back to voters.  Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

“They need to keep property taxes down. There is only so much money to go around,” he said.

The town had overwhelmingly passed a 4.7% school budget increase last summer, with 1,013 for it and 589 votes against.

Public school budgets across Maine faced added pressure this year because of inflation, increased needs of students, and for some, declining state funding. Many districts faced a combination of growing expenses and the loss of federal COVID-era funding and braced for lean times by asking for significant budget increases and proposing cuts to positions and programs.

As Gorham schools developed the budget, they faced a $343,000 jump in utility costs, salary increases of $2.1 million and a spike in health insurance costs that were expected to top $630,000. The budget also included $1.6 million for a new pre-kindergarten program and $1 million in capital improvements.

The school committee cut about $2.1 million from Superintendent Heather Perry’s initial $54.4 million proposal, including a $1.3 million reduction in capital improvement projects and $5,000 from athletics.

In May, the town council ordered the schools to cut another $800,000. During that meeting, residents who packed the chambers were split on the issue. Parents and educators spoke in support of the higher amount, while retirees said they opposed it because of the impact of a tax increase on residents with fixed incomes.

Jane Sexton, who has served on the school committee, town council and as a state legislator, said she is pro-education and believes it’s important for the future. But as a retired teacher living on Maine state retirement benefits, she also understands the pressure from a recent revaluation and tax increases.

Jane Sexton of Gorham is a retired teacher who supports the schools but understands the pressure of increased taxes. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

“It’s always difficult to look at and set priorities,” she said.

Perry, the superintendent, said Wednesday that “this vote continues very important conversations that our community needs to have as we seek to find balance between meeting the costs needed to support the education of our community’s children while also meeting the overall needs of our community’s taxpayers.”

The school committee will talk about its next steps during a special meeting Tuesday. In the meantime, Perry is working with the town manager and others to determine a time line for approving a different budget to send to voters. State law requires another budget validation within 45 days.

While Gorham had not a rejected school budget vote in more than 30 years, it does happen in other towns. In many of those communities, it can take two or three votes to get a budget passed, Perry said. She expects budget discussions will continue to be respectful and civil, she said.

“Gorham is too strong of a community to allow anything else to occur,” she said.