PORTLAND -- Stephen Bowen, director of education policy at The Maine Heritage Policy Center, testified before the legislature's Education Committee today, warning that proposed changes to Maine's new school budget approval process could disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of Maine people who now have the right to vote on their school budget.

"For all the discussion and debate about school unit type and school governance model, the single most important element of the school district reorganization law, the element that holds the most promise for making our schools more efficient and effective, is the budget validation process and the added transparency and accountability it brings," Bowen told the committee.

Committee Bill "A," one of two bills drafted by the Education Committee, would eliminate a question to go before voters in the event that the proposed school budget goes over the state-calculated "Essential Programs and Services" budget cap. The question asks voters if they approve of the budget exceeding that cap.

"We see that question as a critical piece of the budget approval process, one that provides voters with a very important piece of information that they need to make an informed decision on the budget, said Bowen, "especially given a new report from the Maine State Planning Office which finds that 82 percent of districts are over their EPS target."

In reference to Committee Bill "B," Bowen expressed concern that elements of the bill "would deny voters in two groups of school districts, those in municipal systems with charters and those in districts proposing budgets less than five percent above EPS, from even having a referendum vote on the school budget at all."

"Thousands of Maine people would have their current right to vote on the school budget taken away," Bowen said. Under current law, all school budgets in Maine are to be approved using the budget validation process this year.

Bowen pointed to the findings of a research report published by The Maine Heritage Policy Center as evidence of the critical role that the budget validation process has in ensuring better taxpayer oversight of school budgets.

"Our research found that where it is currently in use, the budget validation process has been overwhelmingly popular with voters, and that it is highly successful in containing rising costs."

Bowen's report on the budget validation process was provided to members of the Education Committee, and 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.