By JOEL ELLIOTT
Staff Writer Friday, January 19, 2007

Gov. John Baldacci on Wednesday decried spending practices among local school administrative units as "terrible" and "unacceptable" after a report showed 81 percent of them spending more money than the amount allowed under a state formula.

Called Essential Programs and Services, the formula mandates how much schools should spend in certain areas. The formula is contained in a 2005 state law known as Legislative Document 1, or LD 1, and, coupled with increased state education spending, was said to have been aimed at putting more dollars back into the hands of local taxpayers.

Baldacci's criticism of school district spending was a cheap political stunt and an attempt to divert attention from his own failures, according to Messalonskee School Superintendent Jim Morse.

"I think Governor Baldacci has chosen in his second term to make school systems his whipping boy for the state's lack of spine to address tax reform at the state level," he said. "I think the governor's position is outrageous."

Messalonskee, which serves the communities of Belgrade, Oakland, Sidney and Rome, exceeded the state spending cap by 6 percent, according to the State Planning Office.

But that statement is misleading, Morse said, in light of the fact that each of the towns in the school district this year received a tax burden increase of less than 1 percent over what it had paid last year.

Superintendents from Waterville, Winslow and School Administrative Districts 54 and 53 gave similarly skeptical responses to Baldacci's criticism. School Administrative District 9 business manager Kris Pottle declined to comment on the matter.

Winslow Schools' director of business Gary Smith said that the district went 2.7 percent above the prescribed spending cap, not 4 percent as the state had said.

One of the larger items that contributed to the size of the budget was the assumption of $9 million worth of debt for the construction of a new high school, but even so, Winslow's tax rate dropped 19 percent last year, Smith said.

"One of the things they wanted to do was to allow local communities to decide whether they wanted to spend over and above," he said.

"Now they're saying EPS is the save-all, and shame on the schools for spending, when it's local governing bodies who made these decisions."

Like Smith, School Administrative District 53 Superintendent Michael A. Gallagher disputed the state's numbers, saying that his district went over the requisite amount by 3.6 percent, not 4.

"It seems too bad that (Baldacci) has the feeling that he can take a hard line on something and blame school districts when, for years, districts and communities had blamed the state for not meeting its obligation of 55 percent that was promised years ago," he said.

Gallagher said that his school district, which serves the communities of Burnham, Detroit and Pittsfield, reduced the local tax burden for the 2005-2006 school year by $554,000.

Neighboring School Administrative District 54 has neither raised taxes nor lowered them, according to Superintendent Brent Colbry, who said the state formula is inadequate.

"There's no one-size-fits-all answer," he said. "Not all things we do are recognized by EPS. And voters in communities have made decisions about what they would be willing to support."

SAD 54, which serves the communities of Canaan, Cornville, Mercer, Norridgewock, Skowhegan and Smithfield, spent 11 percent more than it should have, according to the state formula.

The Waterville School District met the state's benchmark, but Superintendent Eric Haley doesn't credit the state formula with being an effective cost-saving measure.

"I read with some cynicism about the governor's outrage at schools' spending," he said. "Just because the state says that's what you should be spending, who makes them the expert?

"Does it save taxpayers money? I don't know if it's as much done by a cap as by good fiscal management," Haley said.

Joel Elliott -- 861-9252

jelliott@centralmaine.com