Hermon considers budget increase School forecast up 6% over last year

HERMON – Town councilors reviewed portions of the 2005-06 draft budget at a 31/2-hour meeting Thursday night, but reached no final decisions.

Included in the meeting was a review of the $10.5 million draft school budget, which proposes a 6 percent increase over last year’s budget.

The school figures are preliminary because the school committee must contend with how to meet the requirements of Essential Programs and Services, a new education funding formula that determines the state allocation for each school in Maine, according to Superintendent Patricia Duran.

Under the new system, all schools will receive at least as much state support as they did last year, but some districts will fare better than others.

“It’s next to impossible to build a budget when we don’t have the formula on which that budget may be built,” Duran said Thursday.

On the town side of the budget, the items of contention included pay increases for town clerks and the amount allocated for legal services.

The proposed budget includes $72,155 to fund town clerk salaries, up nearly 14 percent over last year.

“We’re underpaying a lot of employees,” Town Manager Clint Deschene said Thursday, adding that the town’s clerks make considerably less than in other, comparable towns.

The budget also includes hiring a third clerk who would work as a project manager in the town office, Deschene said.

Councilor Michael Soucy argued that the clerks’ pay raises should be limited to cost-of-living increases and possibly compensation for exceptional work performance.

Soucy also questioned why the town plans to budget $18,000 for legal services, compared to $12,000 last year.

With unforeseen legal costs over the past year that likely will continue, including litigation against a local animal shelter and illegal junkyard, the town might even need more, some councilors argued.

“I can’t imagine we’d want to cut that,” Councilor Anthony Reynolds said.

Overall, the town’s expenses likely will increase by $155,000 over last year, but those costs will be offset by a revenue increase of $271,000, Deschene said.

The town should focus on limiting spending regardless of the amount of anticipated revenue, Soucy said.

“We should spend what we need to spend,” he said.