NEWPORT -- Residents in SAD 48 will be asked to shell out an additional $618,000 to pay for education next year, based on a budget plan approved by the board of directors.

The overall district budget plan includes a meager 1.8 percent increase, to $19.5 million.

But $5.5 million of that total would be generated by local property taxes, which is a 12.5 percent jump from this year, said Kelley Carter, business manager for School Administrative District 48.

As a result, the mil rate for the local share of education would jump from $7.52 to $7.61 per $1,000 of valuation, Carter said. For the average $100,000 home, that represents a $9 increase to $761.

The budget could change over the coming weeks, however. This year, due to new laws associated with the state's consolidation effort, school districts are required to hold a budget meeting during which residents will be allowed to vote and must approve spending in 17 separate categories, Carter said.

The budget meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. May 27 at the Nokomis High School cafeteria.

"This meeting will be presided over by a moderator, who will be elected at the meeting," Carter said. "The results of this meeting will be forwarded to the polls for validation."

That validation vote will take place along with the state primaries in each of six communities' traditional polling places on June 10.

Much of the increase in the local share can be traced to dwindling assistance at the state and federal level. Changes in Medicaid funding for special education, for example, are expected to drop by $110,000 next year.

This year's budget included $500,000 in Medicaid revenue.

"We don't anticipate that much next year and, in future years, it's probably going to be eliminated entirely, but the services that it was paying for do not go away," Carter said.

State funding for special education, through a state agency grant, was eliminated entirely, representing a $190,000 loss from this year.

The district also plans to spend $250,000 less in carryover from this year's budget to offset spending next year.

"It's depleted, so we don't have as much to work with," Carter said.

Though the state's funding formula will give the district an extra $105,000 overall next year, several individual categories were reduced, Carter said. The state cut $338,000 from administration and $58,000 from operations and maintenance of buildings.

In light of the reductions in outside assistance, the school board's budget eliminates 10 full-time and two part-time positions, ranging from an assistant principal to secretaries. The budget also slashes $162,000 from facility repairs and $133,000 from computer software and supplies.

The school board cut $1.3 million from the original draft budget that was proposed several months ago.

"It was very difficult," Carter said. "When we got news on changes in Medicaid in January, we knew were going to have a problem. We knew the local assessment was going to be impacted dramatically, so we took significant measures to keep the budget as minimal as possible. We wound up at a 1.8 percent increase, but we had to make a lot of cuts to get there."

Though the local increase is startling, the $5.5 million that will be generated in local property taxes is still less than what was raised by the 2003-04 budget before the state increased education funding, Carter said.

"We've had some good years over the past couple of years," he said.

"We're not as good as we were the past couple of years, but it's better than we were in 2003-04."

Craig Crosby -- 487-3288

ccrosby@centralmaine.com