In addition to deciding who will be the next president, newest U.S. senator for Maine and a slew of state legislators on Nov. 6, residents of Dayton, Old Orchard Beach and Saco will once again consider the school budget for the current year.

This is the third time a budget is going to voters, and we believe that’s mainly because taxpayers ”“ particularly in Saco ”“ are expressing their frustration over the increase in their tax bills this year ”“ a whopping 17 percent compared with last year in Saco’s city budget. Saco taxpayers are also seeing a 20 percent increase compared with last year on the school side, according to figures provided by the district.

However, voting the school budget down will have no effect on Saco property taxes this year, and it would have a dramatic impact on the education of the district’s students.

In case that remains unclear, let’s re-emphasize: Even if the budget were to fail ”“ which it hopefully will not ”“ further cuts would NOT impact the tax bills Saco property owners have already received for the current year.

What further cuts would do is have a devastating impact on students, teachers and the district as a whole.

In the current proposed budget, expenditures have been cut by about $400,000 compared with the 2011-12 expenditures budget.

RSU 23 Superintendent Patrick Phillips told the Journal Tribune editorial board that there are two major contributors to the increase taxpayers have seen.

First, the district has lost about $3.5 million in revenues this year ”“ made up of federal and state funds for Medicaid, jobs bills and stimulus funds, as well as reduced state aid.

Second, a change to the cost-sharing formula for additional local costs, approved by voters last year, is resulting in a one-year bump in the portion to be paid by Saco. This change was needed due to the disparity between the three towns’ shares ”“ and voters approved it.

In Dayton, taxpayers actually paid more than Saco last year for those additional costs ”“ at $733,043, while Saco paid $711,218. For the current year, those additional local costs are projected to be $606,836 in Dayton, $1.95 million in Old Orchard Beach and $3.16 million in Saco.

While it’s unfortunate that plans were not made to deal with the double hit of the impending loss of revenues and the cost-sharing change, the issue now is that the school year has commenced, students and teachers are in the midst of their work, and a budget needs to be passed.

It’s clear that the school district is not guilty of spending beyond their means. In fact, RSU 23’s per pupil average spending is less than that of RSU 21 and Biddeford. The district’s expenditure budget has actually increased only an average of .76 percent over the past four years. A perfect storm has come together to create this one-year hit.

In response to voter’s concerns, the school board and superintendent have cut as much as possible without impacting the classrooms any further than they already have.

If further cuts were needed, a significant number of teachers would have to be laid off.

Due to the fact that the school year has started and teachers must contractually be given 90 days notice of a layoff, twice as many teachers would have to be laid off to achieve any budget cut proposed. For example, a $500,000 budget reduction equates to approximately 13 teachers, but to cut $500,000 from the budget half way through the school year, 26 teachers would have to be laid off to make the same impact.

That’s nearly one-tenth of the district’s teachers.

That’s a lot of displaced students who would need to be rearranged ”“ possibly sent to other school buildings ”“ not to mention the loss of jobs to many teachers who are area residents and taxpayers themselves.

That is why this budget needs to pass Nov. 6, and we urge voters to visit rsu23.org, become informed and throw their support behind local education.

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Today’s editorial was written by City Editor Robyn Burnham representing the majority opinion of the Journal Tribune Editorial Board. Questions? Comments? Contact Managing Editor Kristen Schulze Muszynski by calling 282-1535, Ext. 322, or via email at kristenm@journaltribune.com.