On Tuesday, Gorham residents approved by just four votes a more than $53 million school budget accompanied by a 9.05 percent property tax rate increase.
1,827 voters supporting the proposal, while 1,823 opposing it, meaning that the proposed FY25 budget was passed by a margin of only four votes.
The 9.05 percent property tax hike included in this budget will translate to a $320 annual increase on a home assessed at $400,000, bringing the total education component of this hypothetical bill from $3,516 to $3,836.
Currently, the school property tax rate for Gorham residents is $8.79 per $1,000 of assessed property value, but under the now-approved FY25 budget this will increase to $9.59 per $1,000 of value.
[RELATED: Gorham Residents to Vote on School Budget with 9.05% Property Tax Hike]
“I think there are two important comments to share regarding this year’s budget vote,” Gorham Superintendent Heather Perry said in an email Wednesday, according to the Portland Press Herald.
“First, I think the results demonstrate the importance of every single vote and voice in our local democracy,” Superintendent Perry said. “Second, I think it demonstrates clearly to our school and municipal officials that we all still have work to do in regards to creating sustainable taxes in our community for the long-term.”
Perry reportedly went on to say that school and town officials are prepared to work as part of the joint Fiscal Sustainability Committee on the issue of taxes.
“We look forward to our part in these important ongoing conversations and to seeking solutions together,” she said. “I would encourage Gorham community members to continue to follow the work of this committee.”
Leading up to Tuesday’s vote, town officials reduced the the budget’s spending increase over FY24 over the course of four budget workshops from 7.62 percent to 6.97 percent.
To accomplish this, it was decided — among other things — to reduce the district’s planned health insurance increase for employees from 10 percent down to just 3 percent.
The Gorham Times reported that the final version of the FY25 budget includes some new expenses, such as a multi-language teacher at the middle school to serve the district’s “growing number of enrolled multi-language students,” as well as an additional resource room teacher at the middle school and a half-time K-5 speech therapist.
Two years after having discontinued the highs school’s alternative education program, the district has now moved to include in the FY25 budget two alternative education teachers and one alternative education staff member for a new program serving roughly fifty students in grades 9-12, according to the Gorham Times.
Included on the revenue side of the FY25 budget is more than $24 million worth of state subsidies and $600,000 from the town’s Fund Balance, which represents an accumulation of unspent funds over the past several years.
According to the Portland Press Herald, Perry chose to include this $600,000 allocation in an effort to ease the burden on local property owners.
“The Gorham School Committee believes this budget is the lowest budget that can be approved while still providing the needed programming to operate our schools and to best serve the children of this community,” Superintendent Perry reportedly said in an email to the American Journal.
Both the Gorham School Committee and Town Council approved of the FY25 unanimously, with one member absent and one recused respectively.
