An Act To Amend the Laws Regarding School Funding
Maine Legislature, Session 123, LD 1932
Senate Amendment SA_C_S430 (Senate)

SENATE AMENDMENT" c." to S.P. 741, L.D. 1932, Bill, "An Act To Amend the 
Laws Regarding School Funding" 
Amend the bill by inserting after section 4 the following: 
'Sec. 5. 20-A MRSA c. 112 is enacted to read: 
CHAPTER 112 
BUDGET VALIDATION REFERENDUM 
§2401. Budget validation referendum 
1. Application. Except as provided in subsection 2. this section applies to a state-
mmroved unit of school administration that is composed of more than one oC the 
following member school administrative units, in any combination: 
A. A municipal school unit; 
B. A school administrative district: 
C. A community school district; and 
D. Any other municipal or quasi-municipal corporation responsible for operating or 
constructing public schools. 
2. Exceptions. This section does not apply to: 
A. A school union that existed prior to Julv 1. 2008: or 
B. A career and technical region. 
3. Budget validation referendum. The annual budget of a state~approved unit of 
school administration described in subsection 1 does not become final until it has been 
mmroved by the governing body of that unit and validated at a budget validation 
referendum conducted in accordance with this section. 
Page \- 123LR3324(31)-1 
SENATE AMENDMENT 
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SENATE AMENDMENT "t.,,, to S.P. 741, L.D. 1932 
Every 3 years, the voters in the state-approved unit of school administration described in 
subsection 1 shall consider the continued use of the budget validation referendum process 
as provided in section 1486. 
4. 
Article. The article to be voted on at a budget validation referendum held 
pursuant to subsection 3 must be in substantially the following form: 
"Do you favor approving the (name of the state-approved unit of school 
administration) budget for the upcoming school year as approved by the (goveming 
body of the state-approved unit of school administration) and set forth below? 
Member 
..................... .... ........ . . 
~ .............. ~ 
................................... 
........................................ 
Total (unit of school administration) 
Budget 
Budget Share 
$ .................................. . 
$ ................................... . 
$ .................................. . 
$ .................................. . 
$ .................................. . 
$ .. ~ ............................... . 
Yes N..Q" 
The following statement must accompany the article: 
"Explanation: 
If this article is approved, each member will be required to pay from its approved 
school budget its budget share as shown above to (name of state-approved unit of 
school administration). " 
5. Procedures. The budget validation referendum held pursuant to subsection 3 
must be conducted in accordance with the following procedures. 
A. I( each school administrative unit that is a member of a state-approved unit of 
school administration described in subsection 1 is required to conduct a budget 
validation referendum on its annual budget, and if none of the warrants for those 
budget validation referenda has been signed at the time that the budget of the unit 
described in subsection 1 is approved by its I!overning body, the article required in 
subsection 4 must be included as an additional article at each member's budget 
validation referendum. The voting on the budget validation article in each member 
school administrative unit is Qot required to be conducted on the same day. The 
return and counting oJ votes on the budget valida(ion article must be conducted in the 
same manner as the procedures. of section 1503, subsection 3 .. 
B. If a budget validation referendum is not conducted in accordance with paragraph 
A, the article required bv subsection 4 must be submitted to a budget validation 
I~ferendum called by the governing body of the state-approved unit of school 
administration described in subsection 1. The budget validation referendum must be 
called and conducted in the same manner as the procedures of section 1486, 
subsections 2 and 3. 
6. Failure to validate budget. If a majority of the voters in a state-approved unit of 
school administration described in subsection 1 does not vote in favor of validating the 
SENATE AMENDMENT 
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SENATE AMENDMENT" L" to S.P. 741, L.D. 1932 
budget approved by its governing body at a budget validation referendum, the governing 
body of that unit of school administration shall prepare and approve a revised budget at 
least 10 days after the budget validation referendum. The revised budget approved by the 
governing body must be submitted to the voters for validation at a budget validation 
referendum conducted in accordance with this section. The process must be repeated 
until a budget is approved by the governing body and validated at referendum. If a 
budget is not approved by the governing body and validated at referendum before July 1st 
of each year, the latest budget approved by the governing body is automatically 
considered the budget for operational expenses for the ensuing year until a final budget is 
approved by the governing body and validated at a budget validation referendum.' 
Amend the bill by relettering or renumbering any nonconsecutive Part letter or 
section number to read consecutively. 
SUMMARY 
This amendment requires that a budget validation referendum be conducted to 
approve the budget for a state-approved unit of school administration that is composed of 
more than one municipal school unit, school administrative district, community school 
district or other municipal or quasi-municipal corporation, or any combination thereof. 
SPONSOREDBY: __ ~~~ 
________________ ___ 
COUNTY: Aro 
FISCAL NOTE REQUIRED 
(See Attacherl) 
SENATE AMENDMENT 
Approved: 02/21108 frac:... 
LD 1932 
LR 3324(31) 
An Act To Amend the Laws Regarding School Funding 
Fiscal Note for Senate Amendment" <:.,,, 
Sponsor: Sen. Martin of Aroostook 
Fiscal Note Required: Yes 
Fiscal Note 
No State fiscal impact 
LR3324(31) - Fiscal Note - Page 1 of I