By David Harry
Staff Writer

In a repeat of grim holiday news from last year, Scarborough School Department officials are bracing for a reduction of state subsidies.
This year, the cuts are more severe, as the department readies for a $1.1 million loss, up from the anticipated $781,000 loss last year that was averted with federal money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act – commonly called the Stimulus Act.
David Connerty-Marin, a spokesman with the Maine Department of Education, confirmed last week that Education Commissioner Susan Gendron presented a plan to Gov. John Baldacci to reduce department spending by $36 million this year.
Last year, Baldacci sought $27 million in education spending cuts when state revenue projections came up short.
Because most of the state money is then redistributed to school districts, Connerty-Marin said subsidy reductions are the way to make up for department reductions from the state.
The reductions are made through monthly withholdings from state subsidy payments, Connerty-Marin said.
Scarborough School Superintendent David Doyle said his department and Portland area school districts are unfairly bearing the brunt of the reductions, but his plea to Gendron to consider another method of determining the subsidy cuts was rejected.
“We are using the same formula as last year,” said Connerty-Marin, referring to calculations based on property valuations and student enrollment.
Because areas including Scarborough have seen larger increases in state aid when money was available, Connerty-Marin said those districts will also see greater subsidy reductions when budgets have to be reworked.
Scarborough Board of Education Chairman Brian Dell’Olio estimated the state funds about 20 percent of the $35 million education budget in town, with about $7 million in subsidies.
Doyle said last week the department was still considering how to deal with the reductions, and a spending freeze is already in place.
Dell’Olio has asked for public suggestions on how to reduce spending be sent to brian.dellolio@gmail.com, or by calling 730-4199, ext. 6216, but Doyle said last week that responses have been limited so far.
“We slowed spending a long time ago,” Doyle said about preparing for financial hardship. Field trips are taken to sites in a 10-mile radius of town and supply purchases have been reduced, Doyle said.
The picture could become worse, said Maine Department of Administrative and Financial Services Commissioner Ryan Low. Revised figures show the state is facing a $400 million budget gap over the next two years.
The $36 million to be cut from the DOE budget is “a starting point,” Low said. “We need to get it to balance first and then mitigate reductions in key areas.”
The first reductions will not be evident until next month at the earliest, Low said, because the Legislature must approve an amended budget or allow a curtailment order Baldacci is preparing to send without changes. The curtailment order freezes government spending.
If the Legislature does not act on the amended budget, Low said the curtailment order would go into effect next May or June.
Should budget projections begin to match proposed spending, state aid will still be reduced next year as the Education budget was reduced $50 million by the Legislature in the spring.
At this point, Low said an additional $38 million could be pared from the DOE budget for 2011.

Staff writer David Harry can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 219