The Cape Elizabeth School Board, despite years of steadily shrinking enrollment and excess capacity, has proposed a school budget that would increase taxes by 10 percent. The board, putting the cart before the horse, included substantial engineers’ fees for a $27 million school bond issue in its budget.
The Town Charter gives the board “general management, care, conduct and control” of the schools, but all other powers, including town financial responsibilities, reside in the Town Council. The council must approve the school budget portion of the town budget before it goes to the voters, and can reject it if the council finds it not in the interest of all taxpayers and residents. Similarly, the council must approve any school bond issue.
The council should reject the school budget and bond issue until they are made fiscally prudent and fair to all taxpayers and residents, who deserve no less.
David Plimpton
Cape Elizabeth
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.