JAY — Thursday, March 25, Regional School Unit 73 directors unanimously approved the warrant for the April 27 district budget referendum vote. A hearing via Zoom to review the budget will be held 6 p.m. April 15.
The April 27 referendum vote will take place at the polls in the towns of Jay, Livermore and Livermore Falls.
The proposed $20.749 million Fiscal Year 2021-22 budget is almost $200,000 higher than the current spending plan, which ends June 30. At the Feb. 25 board meeting, $400,000 was cut from the original proposal.
The proposed budget includes $10.16 million in locally raised funds to be assessed to Jay, Livermore and Livermore Falls. The amounts are based on RSU’s cost sharing formula and state law, according to the district’s public hearing guide on the budget.
Voters will be asked to appropriate $862,229.33 and raise $240,000 ($80,000 from each town) for the food service program. Last year, voters appropriated $844,665 and raised $206,965 ($68,988 for each town) for the program.
For adult education, voters will be asked to appropriate $373,267.48 and raise $198,000 ($66,000 per town). Last year they appropriated $387,939 and raised $195,000 ($65,000 for each town).
Proposed amounts to be appropriated by municipality: Jay $7.51 million, Livermore almost $2.75 million, Livermore Falls $6.41 million.
Proposed amounts to be raised by municipality: Jay $4.33 million, Livermore $1.52 million, Livermore Falls $1.36 million.
The total amount appropriated would be $16.67 million. The total amount raised would be almost $7.22 million.
The total changes in taxes per town would be Jay a decrease of $61,348.88, Livermore increase of $14,851.19 and
Livermore Falls an increase of $27,947.62.
Increase in taxes on a home valued at $100,000 would be Jay no change, Livermore $7 and Livermore Falls $16.20.
Last year, proposed amounts raised by municipality were: Jay $4.4 million, Livermore $1.6 million and Livermore Falls $1.4 million.
The total amount appropriated last year was $16.5 million, amount raised $7.4 million.
Information about the proposed budget will be presented at the April 15 hearing. Voters will be able to have their questions answered then.
In other business, Superintendent Scott Albert said people are starting to ask when schools can go back to in-person learning full-time.
“Until the governor or Maine CDC rescinds some of their public safety measures we cannot,” he said. “The biggest one is the social distancing mandate.”
Six feet makes it difficult, Albert said.
“Even being required to stay distanced three feet keeps us from 100% capacity in some areas,” he said. “It also makes transportation of all students nearly impossible.”
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
