Both halves of Bangor’s city budget – municipal and school – are likely to rise by between 4 and 5 percent next year. Among the reasons are the obvious to anyone who has paid a health care premium or a heating bill, but a year after a long debate on the level of property taxes in Maine, the increases also reflect the condition of Maine’s creaky tax system.

The school budget, first, contains an opportunity for confusion. It proposes a 4.74 percent increase but also a decrease in local taxes of half a mill. That’s caused by the welcome increase in state funding for education, nearly $2 million in 2006, of which more

than $800,000 would be sent to taxpayers. (This amount should grow considerably as the state, finally, moves toward 55 percent of school funding over the next four years.)

The school budget increase is most noticeable in two academic areas – gifted-and-talented programs and pre-kindergarten offerings for 4-year-olds. The program for accelerated learners is not only increasingly popular but increasingly necessary. For 20 years, Maine has tried to raise the aspirations of its students. It has asked them to aim high, to tackle difficult courses, shoot for the nation’s best colleges. Believe it or not, they listened and they are signing up for some of the most challenging courses, requiring schools not just in Bangor but statewide to offer courses and services that meet this demand.

The growth in pre-K programs is the result of at least three influences: Research in early childhood learning during the last decade or so has shown that children are capable of learning far earlier than previously supposed and in some ways are most receptive to learning in their earliest years. The gap, however, between those families able to take advantage of this through excellent private programs and those who cannot is growing and leaves some students unfairly behind even as they begin kindergarten. Third, falling school enrollment means that schools have the physical space for these programs without additional building cost. The state, importantly, carries part of the cost of pre-K programs through Essential Programs and Services.

Bangor city councilors, reflecting the attitude of the public, traditionally have been strongly supportive of the city’s successful school system. They have an additional reason this year to back the increased costs: They are in the same boat, with new costs of their own. Like the school department, they will see increases even as they make difficult decisions about positions and services.

Residents this year may see their mill rate drop only slightly, but it is important to remember the governor’s tax-relief plan counts on implementation over four years. That plan was a compromise of a compromise based on a budget shortfall of the state’s typical local underfunding. Still, Maine is now going in the right direction though it starts so far back from where it should be that local budgets such as Bangor’s, in addition to rising costs of health care and fuel, will take several more years to be adequately funded by the state.

That means continued insistence that the state meet the goals it has set while maintaining support for an education system that remains a gem for the city.