Will the second time be the charm for the Sheepscot Valley Regional School Unit's budget? A proposal the district's board passed July 11 asks towns for a total of $445,630 less than the budget offer that lost at the polls June 28, according to figures the district provided.

The proposal faces a regional budget meeting August 13, when residents of Wiscasset, Westport Island, Alna, Chelsea, Palermo, Somerville, Whitefield and Windsor can raise or lower it, piece by piece. That meeting starts at 7 p.m. at Whitefield Elementary School.

Voters will then consider the package in a district-wide referendum. The district board set the vote for September 10, the district's superintendent Howard Tuttle said.

The board went with the new budget proposal from its finance committee, Tuttle said July 12. The offer calls for a 4.6 percent hike over last year, in the total tab to the district's towns.

That's down from the 7.7 percent hike that was part of the failed proposal.

In Wiscasset's case, the latest proposal would cost the town $54,127 more than last year, according to figures the district provided; the offer the district rejected last month would have cost Wiscasset $205,610 more than last year, meaning the town is $151,483 better off under the new bid. (See table for all towns' data.)

The second-round savings stem from hundreds of thousands of dollars in state aid the district wasn't projected to get when the first budget proposal was being drafted; and from $150,000 that the Capital Area Technical Center will be billing to the state instead of the district, Tuttle said.

“I'm pleased the board approved the finance committee's recommendation, and I'm very pleased we haven't had to reduce programs or increase class sizes,” Tuttle said.

The district might have avoided a second vote if more state aid had been figured in the first time around, said Jerry Bailey, one of Wiscasset's representatives to the board.

Bailey acknowledged that the state's earlier projections were low due to Governor Paul LePage's proposed cuts, but the board could have put in a higher amount based on the likelihood those figures would increase, he said.

The board did not want to take that risk, Tuttle said.

Board Chairman Hilary Holm concurred. A new state biennial budget always brings uncertainty, she said. “One never knows what the (state) funding is going to do, and this one was completely up in the air, especially with Gov. LePage's very different recommendations,” she said.

“We're glad to come back with this change to the local cost,” Holm said about the board's new proposal.

Susan Johns can be reached at 207-844-4633 or sjohns@wiscassetnewspaper.com