[Local-Maine-Schools] Appropriations subcommittee: 4/06

[Brian Hubbell]

I'm traveling, so could follow the Appropriations committee this afternoon.

But I did catch the end of the webcast from their committee room and
what I heard was just the subcommittee still wrestling the matter of
the process for budget approval in the new regional districts.

I may not have this perfectly correct.  But, as I understand it, the
tension that remains is essentially one between Senator Turner's
preference for a three-step process: approval by the regional board,
followed by approval by each municipal legislative body (either town
meeting or town council), and then a written district-wide vote.
Turner suggests that the written vote should also be accompanied by
EPS breakdowns with state comparisons in each category and that the
vote be in two parts.  One to approve the EPS part and the second to
approve the spending over EPS, as this latter would represent the "tax
relief" promised originally by LD-1.

Coming in late to the discussion it was hard to tell exactly, but I
gather that the rest of the subcommittee only has doubts about
combining both the local municipal approval AND a written
district-wide affirmation.

As I said, I may have this wrong.  But I think it's safe to say that
they weren't exactly clear about it either, as they left it that
Senator Turner would draft something firmer by email over the weekend
for them to consider.

The subcommittee meets again at 8:00 on Monday, to take up where they
left off with this and to consider the last remaining matter of
teacher contracts.

Then they are scheduled (once again) to report to the full
Appropriations Committee on Monday afternoon at 1:00PM.

At this point they do not expect to have complete legislative
language.  Representative Cain offered to draft over the weekend an
outlined "synthesis" of what they've decided. They realize that this
is what will be widely disseminated as their report, even though what
ends up in the budget bill will require some further development and,
of course, is also subject to further changes by the full
Appropriations Committee.

So, check back on Monday.  But over the weekend, reach out to your
acquaintances and colleagues and ask them to be prepared for next
week.  It's going to be an interesting week.