HOLDEN – Selectmen asked during Monday’s meeting that a “strongly worded” letter be penned in opposition of Gov. John Baldacci’s plan to raise beginning teacher salaries to $30,000.

By noon Tuesday, the letter was done and faxed to Augusta.

“What are they thinking,” Chairwoman Ellen Campbell asked after discussing the issue Monday. “It’s an unfunded mandate.”

Baldacci announced his initiative to increase beginning teacher salaries to $30,000 during his State of the State address in January, and the Legislature is reviewing the proposal and should make a decision on the issue soon.

“I believe it could be an attack on small school districts to absorb,” Don Varnum, chairman of the SAD 63 board, said during the meeting.

He warned that some rural school districts, which traditionally pay lower salaries, would not survive if the initiative goes forward.

“It could cost us up to $260,000 a year in additional funds,” Varnum said of SAD 63, which comprises Holden, Eddington and Clifton.

In a letter from Superintendent Louise Regan, dated March 14, she announced that the state is planning to chip in $16,000 in targeted funds toward the overall costs.

“That means the burden of salary increases in this district will be paid by taxpayers of our communities,” Regan’s letter states.

With the decision on the issue imminent, the letter composed by Town Manager Larry Varisco was faxed Tuesday to state Rep. Darren Hall, R-Holden, and state Sen. Richard Rosen, R-Bucksport, in Augusta.

“The council is deeply concerned” about the governor’s plan, the town’s letter states. “The long-term negative impact on the property tax for the town of Holden and its citizens presents a serious and costly problem.”