Dear Editor:

Good news, bad news. The good news is, the Wiscasset School Board has come up with a budget for 2017-18 that does not require a tax increase. The bad news is, the new budget is up $458,270 over last year’s. That’s an increase of over 5 percent.

With such a huge projected increase, how come taxes are not going up for the schools? It’s because the School Board is using some of their $472,736 in surplus to offset the increase.

What is the main reason for the budget increase? Increases in salaries and benefits compose the bulk of the increase. How much does a teacher pay towards health insurance premiums this year? The teacher pays 5 percent and the taxpayers pay 95 percent.

Where did close to half a million dollars in surplus come from? Search me!

What happens next year if that surplus isn’t there? The taxes go up, at that time, for this year’s increase and also for next year’s increase. What does that mean to us taxpayers? If next year’s increase is about the same as this year’s, that would amount to about a two mill tax increase. What does that amount to in dollars? If your property is assessed at $200,000, your tax increase would be about $400.00 next year for only the schools.

How can the school board put $69,500 in this budget for the energy project when we haven’t voted for that project yet? They put it in regardless of our vote and against the objection of one of their board members.

What can we do to stop these huge increases in the school budget every year? We have to stop approving the budgets as presented. Our cost per pupil is going out of sight.

Note: My numbers are from the local papers.

Dick Grondin

Wiscasset