Bradley to vote on municipal, school budgets

BRADLEY – Like a lot of other Maine voters, residents here will go to the polls Tuesday, June 5, to elect representatives to the Town Council and school committee.

Unlike most towns in Maine, however, Bradley voters also will set the municipal and school budgets in the voting booth instead of at a traditional town meeting.

If both budgets are approved by the voters, the mill rate would increase property taxes from $14.01 per $1,000 assessed valuation to between $17.50 and $18, according to Town Manager Michael Crocker. The mill rate won’t be set until late June.

Both proposed budgets exceed the Budget Cap Amendment passed in 1996. The cap limits the amount of growth in the net budget – the amount that must be raised through local taxation – to the annual Social Security cost-of-living adjustment. This year, the adjustment was 3.5 percent.

The proposed municipal budget is $50,000 more than it was last year or twice what the cap would have allowed. The proposed school budget exceeds last year’s budget by $162,000.

Both budgets have been recommended to the voters by a 4-1 majority of the council and the school board. Provisions in the 1996 amendment require that budget measures exceeding the cap be approved by four of the five members elected to each body.

Half of the projected municipal budget increase is earmarked for a new firetruck to replace the town’s 20-year-old emergency vehicle, according to Crocker. The rest of the proposed increase would include completion of the meeting room in the town office, funds to begin a three-year reassessment plan and salary for a part-time administrative assistant in the town office.

On the school side, the budget cap would have allowed a mere $15,000 increase, according to Union 90 Superintendent Keith Ober. Bradley, Greenbush, Alton and Milford make up the school union.

Increases in fixed costs such as salaries, insurance rates, rising utility rates, tuition expenses related to increased enrollment and a rise in special education needs account for $108,400 of the proposed increase in expenditures, Ober said Tuesday.

The Bradley school budget also calls for the part-time principal to become a full-time administrator, implementation of all-day kindergarten and additional funds for a new science program, a revised math program and more emphasis on literacy.

“The principal has been teaching reading half-time,” said Ober. “In order to raise our MEA [Maine Educational Assessment] test scores, which we must do, the principal needs more time with teachers to make sure they are implementing the curriculum so standards are being met.”

Ober also said the principal will need to take the lead on the school’s construction application to the Maine Department of Education for either a new school or a major renovation to the current structure built more than 40 years ago.

School enrollment in Bradley increased by more than 13 percent last year. Ober said that a new housing development brought quite a few new students into town. The superintendent said new projections indicate that growth pattern will continue over the next five years.

Oscar Emerson is seeking re-election to the council. Ronald Whitmore also is running for the one term that expires this year. Lewis Henderson, who was appointed to the school committee in 1998, is not running for the office. Shannon Trimm Whitmore is seeking re-election. Heidi Gifford and Laurie Guay also are running for the two school board seats.

Bradley’s annual town referendum will be held at the town office Tuesday. The polls will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Copies of sample ballots are included in the 164th annual town report.