BELFAST – Voters in the eight towns of Regional School Unit 20 will take a second shot at the district's 2013-14 budget in a referendum Tuesday, July 30. The $33.8 million bottom line is lower than the figure rejected at a referendum in June, but would still carry a sizeable tax increase for some towns, and include staff cuts that have been contentious in past debates.

In short, it’s not a slam dunk for struggling taxpayers or school advocates, but can either side expect to do better?

“It's a compromise," said RSU 20 Superintendent Brian Carpenter on Monday, “It was a compromise before it went out [to the public budget meeting, July 22. Everything's not in there that everybody wanted. It’s a balancing act between the taxpayer and what the schools need and want, and it’s the taxpayer who will decide.”

The district's current draft budget is up 1.4-percent over last year. Declining enrollment and the withdrawal of Frankfort from the school district this year have translated into less state money for RSU 20, forcing the district to weigh service cuts against a tax increase.

The current draft budget includes some of both, with slightly more staff cuts and less tax increase than the budget voters rejected in June.

Taxpayers would see an average increase of 12.4-percent over last year in the local share of the budget. The draft budget voted down in June would have carried a 17.2-percent increase. 

The current draft budget eliminates several art teacher positions, the School Resource Officer and cuts all stipends for leaders of middle school extra- and co-curricular activities. Other positions that were considered for elimination but kept in the current draft budget include library ed techs and secretaries at two Belfast schools.

The back-and-forth over the past three months owes largely to the quirky nature of the budget validation process, which starts with school board approval, goes to a public meeting for revisions and is then subject to final approval by referendum. The first two steps can produce wildly different results depending upon who participates. The final step, the referendum, has the potential to nullify the first two without leaving clues as to why.

In May, the school board signed off on the most fiscally conservative budget that has come before RSU 20 voters this year. It contained roughly $1.7 million in cuts, including close to $1 million in teacher and staff cuts that were proposed several days before the budget was approved by the board.

Many of the positions were restored in the second step of the validation process, the public budget meeting, which was was held in Belfast on May 30. The meeting saw a strong turnout from city residents, who have seemed generally more willing to accept a tax increase in order to retain existing services.

In a referendum a week later, however, voters in all eight munipalities rejected the bottom line approved at the Belfast budget meeting. The margins were closer in the city, but still a loss.

District officials went back to the drawing board and returned with a budget that split the difference between their austere first draft and the costlier version that came out of the Belfast budget meeting.

A second budget meeting was held on July 22, this time in Searsport. Turnout was less than half that of the Belfast meeting and the balance tipped slightly in favor of cutting positions to save money.

The result was a leaner draft budget.

On Tuesday that figure goes back to the public for validation at a referendum.  

Carpenter said if it's rejected again it would be hard to know if it was too much or too little. In that case, he said, he would advise the board to reinstate all the original cuts rather than guess at what would constitute the right compromise.

“We cut it all out and let [voters] put it back in. That will be my recommendation if we don’t make it through,” he said. “But I’m hoping we do.”

The RSU 20 validation referendum will be held Tuesday, July 30, in Belfast, Belmont, Morrill, Northport, Searsmont, Searsport, Stockton Springs and Swanville. Contact local town offices for polling places and hours. Belfast voters from Wards 3 and 4 no longer vote at City Hall. The Belfast Boathouse on Commercial Street is now the polling place for Wards 1-4.

Ethan Andrews can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com