On June 9 Scarborough residents will have the opportunity to vote on a $39.1 million school budget. If approved, that budget will result in an 8.2-percent increase in taxpayer funding of the schools next year. Except for several refinements of estimates, the budget is substantially unchanged from that originally submitted by the superintendent in April.

The current budget proposal is simply unaffordable to many Scarborough taxpayers. In addition the budget teaches the town’s kids several poor lessons in the classroom of life. Among them:

1. It’s OK to say one thing but do another.

As part of this year’s budget process, the Town Council set several guiding principles for the budget. Among the principles adopted by the council were recognizing fiscal constraints and maintaining a stable tax rate. Yet the school budget the council approved for submission to the voters calls for more than an 8 percent increase in taxpayer funding of the schools next year. And that’s on top of a 28.8 percent increase during the preceding five years. How does this year’s increase in any way recognize fiscal constraints? How does it help maintain a stable tax rate? What portion of Scarborough taxpayers saw their family income, salary or retirement benefit increase by almost 29 percent during the last five years?

2. There’s no need to consider your neighbors.

Scarborough is an economically diverse community. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated that the incomes of 22 percent of Scarborough households were below $35,000 for 2013. In contrast, 18 percent of households had incomes of more than $150,000.

In terms of age, 19 percent of the town’s residents are 65 years old or older. Many of these residents depend heavily on Social Security as their primary source of income. During the past five years, when the taxpayer funding of the school budget increased by 28.8 percent, Social Security recipients received cost-of-living adjustments of just 8.8 percent. Obviously many seniors are being seriously squeezed by tax increases that far exceed their income growth.

For many of our older residents – as well as many families with children – the property tax bill is one of the largest expenses in the family budget. For the School Board to approve, and the Town Council to pass on, an 8.2 percent school budget increase is a serious failure to consider the financial plight of a significant number of our neighbors.

3. You don’t have to live within your means.

In days gone by, an important life lesson imparted to children was the need to live within your means. Quite simply, you can only spend what you bring in. The example of the school budget as prepared by the School Board and reviewed by the Town Council suggests this principle no longer applies. Apparently, for a reason unknown to me, the rules of matching income and expenses do not apply to school budgets.

For example, Scarborough’s portion of the statewide aid to education pool is projected to decline by approximately $1 million for the coming year. This was the result of how Scarborough fared this year in the complex allocation formula that determines how much each municipality receives. Essentially, our share of the state aid pie decreased because we had a decline in student enrollment and our townwide property valuations increased. It was not some nefarious cut implemented by the governor or “Augusta,” despite what some will insist.

In the real world that many of us inhabit, an organization recognizing that there was $1 million less revenue available would have looked for ways to reduce expenses to offset the loss of revenue, or at least a significant portion of it. But not our School Board. No, with no hesitation whatsoever, they decided to pass that $1 million aid reduction right along to us taxpayers. If my arithmetic is correct, that $1 million accounts for about 2.8 percent of the 8.2 percent increase in school tax funding we are facing. Living within your means is clearly not a concept highly valued by our elected officials.

On June 9, Scarborough voters should give a failing grade to the Town Council and School Board by voting NO on the school budget referendum. And tell them to redo their assignment, this time taking into account the circumstances of all of Scarborough’s taxpayers.

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