Schools Face Cuts to General Purpose Aid
Governor to 'Flat Fund' Education in FY 2010-2011 Budget
By Will Tuell
Downeast Coastal Press, January 13, 2009
Governor John Baldacci announced plans to freeze funding of K-12 education at $959 million per year as part of his FY 2010-11 budget January 9. This follows a November curtailment of $27 million to K-12 education which Baldacci has sought to make permanent as part of his FY 2009 Emergency Supplemental Budget. Legislators began work on the supplemental budget with a series of public hearings this past week.
“Statutory language governing a curtailment does not allow the governor to withhold subsidy without legislative action; it only allows him to delay subsidy payments from June 2008 to July 2009 (the beginning of the new fiscal year),” wrote Education Commissioner Susan Gendron in a November 21 memo to superintendents. “For that reason, the governor announced that he will include a $27,046,649 reduction to GPA in the FY 2009 supplemental budget. However, to ensure that the necessary reductions are made in the current fiscal year, he has also included the same amount in his curtailment order announced today [November 21, 2008] as a delay of payment from June 2009 to July 2009. ... It is important to understand that this is the SAME $27 million—not an additional amount. Enactment of the supplemental budget would replace the delay of payment with an actual reduction of subsidy by June 30, 2009.”
Rep. Howard McFadden (R-Dennysville), who serves on the Education and Cultural Affairs Committee, said that while the state saves $27 million, taxpayers will feel the pinch at the local level in what is often referred to as a cost-shift maneuver by the state.
“They've taken $27 million out,” said MacFadden, “and anytime they take that money out of the state budget, it puts it onto the towns. It has raised local commitment from 6.55 mils to 6.79. It's up over a quarter of a mil locally. Every time the state saves money, the towns pick it up, and that increases property taxes.”
Union 102/East Machias Superintendent Scott Porter addressed both the effects of a funding freeze and GPA cuts to local schools in a phone interview January 9.
“The commissioner, at a meeting prior to Christmas, stated that the governor has committed—once he cuts that $27 million—to keep funding flat for two years, so there wouldn't be any other cuts,” said Porter. He added that the funding freeze would be at the state level, and that local schools could see adjustments depending on student population and valuation. “We were concerned that [Gendron] had [talked] about subsidy being the exact same amount per school. That's not going to be the case. The amount statewide would stay the same, but they're going to have to run everything through EPS [Essential Programs and Services] with valuation changes and student count changes.”
Porter said under the curtailment, the loss in GPA per town in those under his jurisdiction, as projected by the Department of Education, were as indicated in the box.
|
Projected Loss in GPA Under Curtailment/FY 09 Supplemental Budget |
|
|
Town |
Loss |
|
Machiasport |
$21,744 |
|
Cutler |
$11,076 |
|
Whiting |
$12,756 |
|
Machias |
$26,316 |
|
East Machias |
$16,332 |
|
Jonesboro |
$12,744 |
|
Marshfield |
$7,440 |
|
Roque Bluffs |
$1,531 |
|
Whitneyville |
$2,520 |
|
Northfield |
$552 |
|
Wesley |
$600 |