Maine School Budgets get Boost from State

March 10, 2010

In York, the funding is helpful, said Superintendent Henry Scipione. Scipione said the school system, a minimal receiver district getting only 5 percent of its funds from the state, had expected to receive $952,000, but now is getting $1.1 million. The school department will receive $60,000 more in state aid and another $40,000-plus from health insurance overestimates.

As a result, the York School Committee, which had planned to use $400,000 from surplus funds to offset taxpayer costs, will now use only $300,000 from surplus funds, with the rest coming from the unexpected money from the state.

Gov. John Baldacci on Wednesday, March 3 released a revised state budget that restored $51 million due to upgraded revenue projections and nearly $28 million in additional Medicaid funding from the federal government. Most of the additional funds, $37 million, went to bolster the state’s health and human services, which had been severely cut. But $20 million went to help out the state’s schools.

Scipione said the reduction in estimated health-insurance costs occurred because the Maine Education Association, the teachers union, agreed to augment some of the health-insurance costs.