PORTLAND -- The Maine Heritage Policy Center said today that under the provisions of a new bill to be voted on by the Education Committee this afternoon, more than 160 towns and cities across Maine, which are home to more than 600,000 people, may lose the right to a referendum vote on their school budget.

Under current law, all school budgets are to be approved by a referendum vote before taking effect. LR 3491, which was developed by the Education Committee itself, contains provisions that would eliminate the requirement for a school budget referendum vote in certain school districts.

One component of the bill would provide an exemption from the budget referendum requirement for any school unit whose proposed budget is less than 5 percent above their state-calculated Essential Programs and Services spending target.

Department of Education data from the 2006-2007 school year reveals that 87 municipal school units and SAD's were under 5% above their EPS targets.

"When you count the towns those SAD's serve, you are talking about voters in 167 communities in Maine no longer having a school budget referendum vote," said Stephen Bowen, a former legislator and the Director of Education Policy at The Maine Heritage Policy Center. According to the Census, those 167 communities, which include ten of the twelve largest cities in Maine, are home to over 600,000 people.

"Not only will thousands of Maine taxpayers lose the right to a school budget referendum vote this year, they will never know from year to year whether they'll get a referendum vote or not," said Bowen. "School budgets and EPS targets will change every year, meaning that one year you may get a referendum vote and the next year you won't. How is this good public policy?"

A second provision of LR 3491 would create a school budget referendum exemption for municipal school units in which a town or city council approves the school budget, under the authority of a municipal charter. According to the Maine Municipal Association, there are 30 towns and cities with municipal school systems and a council form of government, only one of which currently allows a referendum vote on the school budget.

According to Bowen, "when you add those towns and cities to the 167 other communities to be exempted from the referendum requirement, you might as well not even bother to have the referendum provision in the law."

This afternoon's Education Committee vote comes only days after the release of a new report from the Maine State Planning Office, which found that 82% of school districts are already above their EPS target. "I fail to see how we are going to successfully get these budgets under control if we remove thousands and thousands of voters from the decision-making process," said Bowen.

The work session on LR 3491 is scheduled for 3pm this afternoon.

Bowen's testimony at yesterday's Education Committee hearing on the bill is available at The Maine Heritage Policy Center's www.mainepolicy.org website.

The Maine Heritage Policy Center is a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit, nonpartisan research and educational organization based in Portland, Maine. The Maine Heritage Policy Center formulates and promotes free market, conservative public policies in the areas of economic growth, fiscal matters, health care, education, and transparency - providing solutions that will benefit all the people of Maine. Contributions to MHPC are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.