An Act To Change the Procedure When a Maine School Administrative District Budget Fails
Maine Legislature, Session 122, LD 0875
Committee: Education and Cultural Affairs
Sponsors: CEBRA, BERUBE, CRESSEY, FLETCHER, HAMPER, LANSLEY, ROBINSON, SNOWE-MELLO
Amends: 20-A MRSA §1305, 20-A MRSA §1305-B

Legislative Document 
No. 875 
H.P.625 
House of Representatives, February 22, 2005 
An Act To Change the Procedure When a Maine School 
Administrative District Budget Fails 
Reference to the Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs suggested and ordered 
printed. 
Presented by Representative CEBRA of Naples. 
1lJ~ 
1J7.1l/tic~ 
MILLICENT M. MacFARLAND 
Clerk 
Cosponsored by Representatives: BERUBE of Lisbon, CRESSEY of Cornish, FLETCHER of 
Winslow, HAMPER of Oxford, LANSLEY of Sabattus, ROBINSON of Raymond, 
V AUGHAN of Durham, Senator: SNOWE-MELLO of Androscoggin. 
Printed on recyc led paper 
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows: 
Sec. 1. 20-A MRSA §1305, sub-§3, as amended by 1993, c. 372, 
§2, is further amended to read: 
3. 
Failure to approve a budget. 
If the budget or a portion 
of the budget fails to receive a majority vote at the referendum, 
the board of directors shall decide 
in 
a 
public proceeding 
whether £ subsequent vetes vote on the portion of the budget that 
was defeated must be conducted in accordance with the referendum 
procedure in subsection 2 or at a district budget meeting held at 
a single place in the district in accordance with procedures in 
sections 
1303 
and 
1304. 
SaBse~aeRt--vetes A subsequent vote 
conducted 
in 
accordance 
with 
the 
referendum 
procedure 
in 
subsection 2 must be held within 45 days. 
SaBSe~'I:le.f'l-t.--y.9t;es b 
subsequent vote conducted in accordance with sections 1303 and 
1304 must be held within 30 days. 
±aese-~-e-f-e-£~--<H:--HleetiR~s 
The referendum or meeting must be held solely for the purpose of 
approving an alternative operating school budget to replace the 
part of the proposed budget that the voters failed to approve. 
±ae-BeaFa-ffiay-~~-t.~~~~~~~~~-~~~~-a&-alt;eF&at;ive-Baa~eE 
is-aaept.ea ... If the budget or the portion of the budget fails to 
receive a majority vote at the subsequent vote, then the budget 
or the portion of the budget adopted in the immediately preceding 
year replaces the budget or portion of the budget that the voters 
failed to approve. 
Sec. 2. 20-A MRSA §1305-B, sub-§5, as enacted by PL 1999, c. 
710, §5, is amended to read: 
5. 
Failure to approve budget. 
If the 
voters 
do 
not 
validate the budget approved in the district budget meeting at 
the budget validation referendum vote, the board of directors 
shall hold another district budget meeting in accordance with 
sections 1303 and 1304 at least 10 days after the referendum to 
vote on a budget approved by the board of directors. 
The budget 
approved at the 
subsequent district budget 
meeting 
must 
be 
submitted 
to 
the 
voters 
for 
validation 
at 
referendum 
in 
accordance with this section. 
±ae-pFe€e££-~-~-~t;eG-aBEi± 
a-~~~--~-appFevee-a-t.-~-Gi&t;Fiet;-B'I:la~et.-~~~~-va±ieaEee 
at-£e~e£e~a'l:lm,--~~-~-&~t;-is-~e-t.-~~~-y.aliGat;eG-Be€eFe 
Ja±y-~£t.-~-~~~-r~~-l~~~-app±iesT If the budget fails 
to receive a majority vote at the subsequent vote, 
then the 
budget adopted in the immediately preceding year replaces the 
budget that the voters failed to approve. 
Page l-LR1543(1) 
• 
.. 
SUMMARY 
Under current law, if a budget or portion thereof fails 
after a referendum vote, the board of directors of the school 
administrative 
district is 
authorized 
to 
schedule 
unlimited 
meetings to resubmit the budget to the voters. 
This bill instead 
authorizes one subsequent meeting to resubmit the budget to the 
voters, 
and if it again fails, the budget or portion of the 
budget adopted in the immediately preceding year replaces the 
budget or portion or the budget that the voters failed to approve .