BANGOR – Despite this week’s release of state school subsidy projections, Bangor school officials and their counterparts around Maine remain somewhat in budgetary limbo.

The subsidy numbers were scheduled to be released last month, but the state budget is still being reviewed by the Legislature, Superintendent Robert Ervin noted Wednesday night during a school committee meeting at City Hall.

Jim Rier, team leader of the Maine Department of Education’s management information systems, said earlier this week that the release of state subsidy figures has been delayed because of uncertainty over the final outcome of Gov. John Baldacci’s $6.4 billion budget proposal.

Because of the uncertainty over the final budget, the state released two sets of preliminary subsidy estimates to allow school officials to move forward in their budget development process.

One set of numbers is based on the expectation that the governor’s budget proposal will be approved. The other set offers a more conservative bottom line. For Bangor, either option will require more local dollars be raised.

Ervin said Monday he is bracing for the worst-case scenario, given the intense demand on the state’s meager resources from virtually all sectors of state government, from education and law enforcement to health care and transportation.

“Locally, we’re going to have to raise more money,” he said. “It may get better, but I’m not expecting it to.”

As it stands, the Bangor School Department’s proposed gross budget for the coming school year amounts to $39,784,701, up 4.53 percent from this year’s $38,060,918.

Under the better of the two possibilities, Bangor would receive $17,076,175 in state subsidy, up 9.76 percent from this year. The portion to be funded by city taxpayers would be $19,884,501, a 1.3 percent increase from this year. The balance of the budget would be funded with $700,000 carried forward from this year’s budget and other revenues, including tuition for education nonresident students.

Under the worse projection, the city would receive $16,828,579 from the state, or 8.17 percent more than this year. Local taxpayers’ share, however, would be higher at $20,132,097, or 2.56 percent more than this year.

During a budget workshop last week at City Hall, Ervin attributed the projected 4.53 percent budget increase to a variety of factors, including salary and health insurance increases, rising costs for food service and student transportation, and the need to hire four more elementary school teachers and an additional English teacher at Bangor High School to keep pace with enrollment.

School committee Chairman Martha Newman said it was important to note that despite a 4.53 hike in the gross budget, the amount that must be raised locally would only increase 2.56 percent in the worst case.

“That’s what affects the taxpayer,” she said.

The budget’s bottom line, however, could change as school officials continue to fine-tune their budget plan. It also could change once the state lets Bangor schools know exactly how much they will receive in state aid.

The school committee is tentatively scheduled to meet next Thursday to wrap up their budget proposal so they can forward it to city councilors.

Though the city charter requires that the school department submit a budget to the City Council by the first week of April, Ervin wrote City Council Chairman Richard Greene to brief him on the situation with the state subsidy and to let him know that the school budget might need further adjustment after it is submitted to the city.