Dear Editor:

In June we had the opportunity to vote on our property taxes. We may not have noticed it but the taxes were divided into two sections. One section dealt with the town's expenses which were divided into the costs relating to the various town departments with the Select Board recommendation. We could vote for or against each item. These items only accounted for ~40% of your property taxes.

The one department not listed was the school department. The Select Board (Tax Assessors) takes a hands off approach. The school budget accounts for ~ 60% of your property taxes.

The individual categories in the school budget are not itemized. On a separate question on the ballot, we are only allowed to vote for or against the total. That total was determined at a Special Town Meeting by the small number of voters attending. In June the school budget was rejected by the voters.

A second Special Town Meeting was held and the school budget was reduced by ~$455 thousand. There were 69 people there and only 36 approved the revised budget. The budget has gone from $11.7M to $11.2M to $10.7M, reduced by $1M from the original budget proposed by the superintendent. No explanation has been provided, describing the logic for these costs.

Is this budget reasonable and achievable or is it excessive? Comparing it to the Richmond School District, which has an Elementary School and a Middle High School, similar to Wiscasset except that it has 63 more students with a budget of $9.8M, we can conclude that the Wiscasset School budget is still excessive.

Ballots are now available for the second School Budget Validation vote on Sept. 1. 

Edward J. Polewarczyk

Wiscasset