Paris share of school budget to remain flat

PARIS — SAD 17 Superintendent Rick Colpitts had some good news, and some bad news for Paris town officials when he met with them during their most recent meeting.

"The good news is, assessments are beginning to stabilize," said Colpitts. "So your assessment in Paris has gone relatively unchanged from last year's."

Colpitts also noted that Paris property values have shrunk slightly in comparison to other district towns, resulting in an "almost imperceptible" savings to the town of $900. In the current year, Paris shouldered 13.6 percent of the school's local revenues, and next year, that will drop to 13.59 percent.

The bad news, says Colpitts, is that the overall local cost of education is likely to rise.

"The bad news is, we've been three years level-funded at the local level, and we have seen at the state level a reduction from $20 million to almost $16.5 million," said Colpitts, "so almost a reduction of $3.5 million from the state side."

The outlook for state funding is uncertain, but it is unlikely to improve for next year's budget.

Colpitts said that the district is anticipating another $2 million reduction.

"It's a bit premature to assume that's actually going to happen," said Colpitts. "We don't know, with the new governor, what his proposal will be."

Local property values in the district have increased at a rate greater than that of the state as a whole, which means that the state will give a smaller percentage of its education budget to the Oxford Hills area.

The state average increase in property values is 1.35 percent, as compared to 2.11 percent locally. In Paris, town property values for 2011 went from $337 million to $344 million, an increase of 2.06 percent.

Colpitts disseminated information that projected three different scenarios for local school funding increases. The first is another flat budget, which would see Paris spend $2,073,024 on education, a reduction of $900 from the previous year.

The second scenario allots for a 3 percent increase, which, in Paris, would amount to $61,222 in additional costs. The third scenarios projects a 5 percent increase, which would cost Paris $102,682 more than current funding levels.

"We've tried to give you sort of a ballpark," said Colpitts, "so that when you do your budgeting you can do some estimating as well."

Harrison will see the biggest increase in property values this year, of 4.93 percent. Paris, Oxford, and Norway all saw increases near 2 percent. Hebron saw an increase of .89 percent, Waterford saw an increase of .38 percent, and Otisfield saw an increase of .27 percent.

The only town in the school district that saw a net loss in property values was West Paris, which saw a decline of .93 percent. Total property values in West Paris went from $107.4 million to $106.4 million.

This means that, if the school district were to ask local towns for an additional 3 percent in funding, West Paris would see no net increase.