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On Friday Mrs. Fitzgerald and I met with Superintendent Richard Green to discuss this year’s school budget. First, I want to thank Mr. Green and the School Board for the outstanding job they did on last year’s budget. On the school side there was no increase to the taxpayers and this was remarkable given the handicap they started out with. The Federal Stimulus Funds went a long way to helping balance their budget. But unfortunately the Federal Stimulus money ($157,503) is not available this year. Also, there is an estimated $250,000 in contractual obligation for increases in Step/Level and 1.75% in base wage for teachers and staff. This is the last year of the contract and hopefully the union will work with the town to lower this yearly cost. A yearly increase of ¼ million dollars a year is a great deal of money for this town during this economic crisis. Also, I hope these raises will be based on performance instead for attendance as it is now.
Attached are the numbers Mr. Green and the School Board are working with as of January 12, 2012. There are a lot of dedicated individuals working hard to lower the cost need to be raised by the people to offset the loss of the Federal Stimulus and the contractual commitment. Currently, the number needed to be raised by the taxpayers is $341,567.
This would not be a big deal if the Town Council and Chief Brooks turned the Lisbon Communication Center over to Androscoggin County. The consolidation of the communications center project is coming to a head with a walk through and a meeting of the County Commissioners on February 8, 2012 at 3:00PM and the public is invited to attend. If the town turned the Lisbon Communication Center over to the County, there would be sufficient savings to offset this $341,567 shortfall in the school budget. Cooperation between the Town Council and the School Department would definitely be in the best interest of the taxpayer and go along ways to holding taxes down again this year.
I am sure Mr. Green and the School Board will continue to work hard and long in the best interest of the taxpayer not to raise taxes this year.
Larry Fillmore
Concerned Citizen
2 comments:
Yea. Nice. "We're cutting to the bone". But I'm going to have the town pay for my PHd/Ed.D. for ~$9K. And we're paying for MS Office licensing for ~$13K--don't need this either (Open office) is the same and free. I wonder how much other crap is in this budget. Oh yea. Don't forget the ~$4k being taken away from the supplies budget for LCS. Where are the supplies going to come from? You guessed it. Parents. Most of the LSC is a joke. P.R. and G.C. are the only non yes-men/women there. It's truly ridiculous. BTW. That ~$300K. Yea. That's almost another mil added to the tax bills.
Why should we pay for this persons education. Most people pay for their own. I agree with using Open Office instead of MS. Why should those of us without children pay for your kids education. All of this aside if we really want to cut the budget we need to CUT AT LEAST HALF OF THE POLICE IN THIS TOWN...Oh did I say that out loud....
D.B.
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