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In June 2017, RSU 22 voters rejected the school budget set to increase by nearly $763,000 (2.5 percent). The proposed fiscal year 2025 budget is $2.280 million, or 6.12 percent, higher than the previous year.
This represents the largest gross budget variance in the past decade. This proposed increase is indefensible in the face of the current budget surplus. From 2018 to 2023, the audited fund balance increased from $1.83 million to $10.78 million (nearly 500 percent). Over that time, the permitted excess fund balance by state statute increased from around $72,000 to more than $5 million.
Maine law — 20-A MRSA, section 15689-B, subsection 6 — requires when a district holds a fund balance above 9 percent, a plan must be developed to bring that fund balance to less than 9 percent over the subsequent three years. An excess balance has existed since 2018 (six years when statute required a plan to decrease the excess within three years). The district plan would increase the total reserve fund balance by $1.342 million (current reserve balance is $1.965 million) and earmark $2.25 million as revenue toward the budget.
With a stated anticipation of this surplus continuing to grow by an unknown amount over the next couple of years, I hope others will join me in voting no at the June 6 district budget meeting and at the June 11 budget validation referendum.
Eric Jarvi
Chair
Town Council
Hampden
