Westbrook residents voted Tuesday to reject the town’s proposed $51.7 million school budget that included a nearly 16 percent increase in the school property tax rate.
According to the Portland Press Herald, this was reportedly the first time that Westbrook voters have ever rejected a school budget at the ballot box.
The proposal was voted down by a margin of just 53 votes, or by about 2.78 percent. In total, 48.38 percent of Westbrook voters supported the school budget, while 51.16 percent opposed it.
The proposal on which residents voted Tuesday was reportedly 9.6 percent more expensive than the budget approved for FY24 and was accompanied by a 15.7 percent school property tax rate increase.
School officials have explained that the majority of these added expenditures for FY25 came as a result of rising payroll and benefit costs for employees.
In early April, School Department Finance Director Brian Mazjanis said that about half of the budget increase was accounted for by “funds set aside for contract negations” with the district’s “two largest bargaining units,” while an additional 20 percent was to go toward increased health insurance costs and Maine’s new payroll tax.
Mazjanis went on to say that the final 30 percent of the district’s added costs were needed “to support our students and schools and to cover the increase in the cost of goods and services that we have seen over the past year.”
In a letter sent to Westbrook residents, Superintendent Peter Lancia said that the proposed budget was designed to meet the increasing needs of students in the district.
“The complexity of our student population continues to expand,” Superintendent Lancia said. “This includes students in special education programs with over 600 learners receiving services including a record number of students requiring outside of district placements in programs and facilities due to significant needs.”
“Additionally our population of students receiving multilingual services continues to grow, now to over 500 students, many of whom are newcomers and require targeted support in English as well as social services,” said Lancia.
During an early reading of the budget before the Town Council, Canal Elementary School teacher Megan Murrow told officials that the size of her classroom has grown from 13 to 19 over the past two years, and her students are in need of extra support.
According to Murrow, 21 percent of her students need multi-lingual support, 26 percent need individual education support, and 42 percent need social and emotional support.
Under the budget rejected by Westbrook residents Tuesday, the school property tax rate would have increased an estimated $1.45 per $1,000 of property value, driving up the total school-side rate from $9.24 to $10.69.
This increase would have translated to an additional $580 worth of education-related property taxes on a home valued at $400,000, bringing the total school portion of this hypothetical property tax bill from $3,696 to $4,276.
Westbrook School Committee chair Sue Salisbury told the Press Herald Wednesday that the Board had been planning for the possibility that voters would reject their proposed budget at the ballot box.
“We will try to have a Finance Committee and School Committee meeting next week with a new budget proposal,” Salisbury said. “Then it will go to City Council, and then to voters again.”
The Press Herald also reported that Acting Mayor and City Council President David Morse issued a statement early Wednesday regarding residents’ rejection of the budget.
“The City Council will meet expeditiously for the purpose of sending a revised school budget to voters as soon as possible after the School Committee completes their work,” Morse said. “As a concerned parent, taxpayer and mayor, I will be watching the School Committee with great interest as they revise their budget proposal.”
