East Machias Finalizes Budget for June 3 Town Meeting

By Will Tuell

East Machias voters will consider a town budget of $335,000 and a school department budget of $________ at their annual town meeting June 3. The budget, approved by selectmen at their May 5 meeting, amounts to an increase of $120,000 combined, although that figure could swell if voters decide to hang on to $280,000 in town surplus that the selectmen have earmarked for the budget. The school piece will also have to go through a referendum as part of Maine's school consolidation law, scheduled for June 10.

“We're in good shape,” said East Machias Selectman Kenneth “Bucket” Davis in a phone interview May 10, adding that many towns across the state don't have surpluses and have to raise two to four times what East Machias will have to. “Statewide, you’re looking at $200,000-400,000 increases,” he said.

On the municipal side, selectmen have set aside $150,000 from the town's surplus, although there will still be an increase of $50,000 over last year's $286,000 budget. Davis cited increased energy and fuel costs as the driving force behind the increase, adding that when selectmen solicited bids for the town's snowplowing contract, the best they could get was $50,000 over the previous contract. The losing bid would have cost taxpayers an additional $20,000 over the course of a two-year contract.

“The snowplowing [contract] could've been $20,000 more. The ambulance contract, the cost of fuel, things are going up,” said Davis. Still, Davis noted that revenues are helping offset the amount of taxes the town has to collect, though he worries that with the economy in the shape it is, people will be buying and registering fewer vehicles, which will result in diminishing excise tax revenue.

“The town budget is going to be 50K more,” said Davis. “That doesn’t mean taxes are going up, because we’ve got other revenue coming in. We’re in good shape.”

The School Budget

The school department budget (East Machias runs its own municipal school department and is not a member of a school union or SAD) is more complicated. Residents will shoulder an increase of $68,000, said Davis, but that that could have been considerably higher if selectmen and school officials didn't have the option of using $130,000 from surplus that they had accrued after breaking away from the now defunct SAD 77.

“On the school side, we’re about a mil difference.,” said Davis. “That looks good, too. We’re going to have more students coming in, which is also more revenue.”

“They've [East Machias] used some of the surplus to offset the tax load,” said Supt. Scott Porter, the town’s part-time superintendent who also serves in that capacity for Union 102 (Machias) and for some other communities. “[It] will go up $68,000,” he said in a phone interview May 9, adding, “They've got more secondary students coming in. Energy costs—heating fuel, diesel—are going up, plus increases in salary and benefits.”

The school budget must be voted on three times before it can be enacted, first by the selectmen, secondly at town meeting, and thirdly at a ballot referendum which is scheduled for June 10.

Should voters turn down the budget, the school committee and selectmen will have to start from scratch and have a special town meeting and ballot referendum over the summer. The process is repeated until a budget is enacted.

The possibility of voters turning down the school budget was a concern to Davis. “It would be a slap in the face,” he said, adding that the selectmen and school board have worked hard to put together a budget that keeps taxes under control, even as other school systems are cutting back on positions and programs.

Davis said he will ask residents to approve an “emergency budget,” one that will keep the town offices and school department open past July 1 and give municipal officials the time to present an alternative budget. Without such a measure, neither the town nor the school would be able to operate after June 30.

Town meeting is set for June 3 at the East Machias Municipal Building. A half-hour informational meeting regarding the school budget will be held at 6 p.m., followed by the formal town meeting at 6:30.