An Act To Amend the Laws Governing Consolidation of School Administrative Units To Eliminate Penalties, Establish Incentives and Allow Alternative Voting Procedures for Budgets
Maine Legislature, Session 124, LD 1287
Committee: Education and Cultural Affairs
Sponsors: DAMON, SCHATZ, ROSEN, BRIGGS, BROWNE, BURNS, EDGECOMB, FITTS, SUTHERLAND
Amends: 20-A MRSA §1485, 20-A MRSA §1486, 20-A MRSA §1486-A, 20-A MRSA §1701-C, 20-A MRSA §15696, 20-A MRSA §15697

. Legislative Document 
No. 1287 
S.P.468 
In Senate, March 31, 2009 
An Act To Amend the Laws Governing Consolidation of School 
Administrative Units To Eliminate Penalties, Establish Incentives 
and Allow Alternative Voting Procedures for Budgets 
(EMERGENCY) 
Reference to the Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs suggested and ordered 
printed. 
Presented by Senator DAMON of Hancock. 
Cosponsored by Representative SCHATZ of Blue Hill and 
9rf)(J~ 
JOY J. O'BRIEN· 
Secretary of the Senate 
Senator: ROSEN of Hancock, Representatives: BRIGGS of Mexico, BROWNE of Vassalboro, 
BURNS of Whiting, EDGECOMB of Caribou, FITTS of Pittsfield, McFADDEN of .. 
Dennysville, SUTHERLAND of Chapman .. 
Printed on recycled paper 
Emergency preamble. Whereas, acts and resolves of the Legislature do not 
become effective until 90 days after adjournment unless enacted as emergencies; and 
Whereas, the effort to consolidate the State's school administrative units has been an 
extremely frustrating and confusing process for many school and municipal officials and 
members of the general public who have been engaged in good faith in negotiating to 
reorganize school administrative units for over a year; and 
Whereas, the laws governing the school administrative unit consolidation process 
penalize units that fail to consolidate in accordance with an extremely aggressive 
timetable; and 
Whereas, changes to the 2007 school administrative unitconscilidation laws were-
enacted in April 2008 that provided school administrative units· with opportunities. to 
reorganize in different ways but the alternative organizational· opportunities are difficult 
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to implement; and 
Whereas, the school administrative unit consolidation laws mandate certain school 
budget adoption procedures that involve redundant d~cision making and are expensive to 
administer on the local level; and 
. Whereas, there are several elements of the school administrative unit consolidation 
laws that are still contradictory, ambiguous or erroneously cross-referenced; and 
Whereas, in the judgment of the Legislature, these facts create an emergency within 
the meaning of the Constitution of Maine and require the following legislation as 
immediately necessary for the preservation of the public peace, health and safety; now, 
therefore, 
. 
Be it enacted by the People ofthe State of Maine as follows: 
Sec. 1. 20-A MRS A §1305-C, as amended by PL 2007, c. 668, §2 and affected by 
§55, is further amended t6 read: 
§1305-C. Mandatory budget validation, and cost center summary budget form 
Notwithstanding any other law, school administrative district budgets developed after 
January 1, 2008 must conform to the format arid referendum procedures for regional 
school units as set forth in sections 1485 and 1486: A school administrative district is 
deemed to be a regional school unit solely for the purpose of developing a budget 
pursuant to sections 1485 aBEl .. 1486 and 1487. 
Sec. 2. 20-A MRSA §1485, sub-§3, as enacted by PL 2007, c. 240, Pt. XXXX, 
§ 13, is amended to read: 
3. Budget approval. A Except as provided in section 1486-A, a regional school 
unit's cost center summary budget must be approved at a regional school unit budget 
meeting and by a budget validation referendum as provided in section 1486. 
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Sec. 3. 20-A MRSA §1486, sub-§2, as amended by, PL 2007, c. 668, § 19, is 
further amended to read: 
2. Validation referendum procedures. The budget validation referendum must be 
held on or before the 14th calendar day following the scheduled date of the regional 
school unit budget meeting. The referendum may not beheld on a Saturday, Sunday or 
legal holiday. The vote at referendum is for the purpose of approving or rejecting the 
total regional school unit budget approved at the regional school unit budget meeting. 
The regional schoo1unit board shall provide printed information te that must be displayed 
at polling places, and may be displayed withill each voting booth, to assist voters in 
voting. That information is limited to the total amounts' proposed by the regional school 
unit board for· each cost center summary budget category article, the amount approved at 
the regional school unit budget meeting, a summary of the total authorized expenditures 
and, if applicable because of action on an article under section 15690, subsection 3, 
paragraph A, a statement that the amount approved at the regional school unit budget 
meeting includes locally raised funds that exceed the maximum state and l()cal spending 
target pursuant to section 15671-A, subsection 5. 
Sec. 4. 20-A MRSA §1486, sub-§3, as amended by PL 2007, c.668, §20 and c. 
695, Pt. G, §§ 1 and 2, is repealed and the following enacted in its place: 
3. Budget validation referendum voting. The method of calling and.voting at a 
budget validation referendum is as provided in sections 1502 and 1503, except as 
otherwise provided in this subsection or as is inconsistent with other requirements of this . 
section. 
A. A public hearing is not required before the vote. 
C. The warrant and absentee ballots must be delivered to the municipal clerk no later 
than the day after the date of the regional school unit budget meeting. 
D. Absentee ballots received by the municipal clerk may not be processed or counted 
unless received on the day after the conclusion of the regional school unit budget 
meeting and before the close of the polls. 
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E. 
All envelopes containing absentee ballots received before the day after' the 
conclusion of the regional school unit budget meeting or after the close of the polls 
must be marked "rejected" by the municipal clerk. 
F. The article to be voted on must be in the following form: 
(1)' "Do you favor approving the (name of regional school unit) budget for the 
upcoming school year that was adopted at the latest regional school unit budget 
meeting? 
Yes No" 
Sec. 5. 20-A MRSA §1486-A is enacted to read: 
Page2 - 124LRI06S(OI)-1 
§1486-A. Alternative voting procedures 
On the initiative of a regional school unit board, or if requested by a written petition 
of at least 10% of the number of voters voting in the last gubernatorial election in th~: 
municipalities in the regional school unit, the regional school unit board shall cause thte 
following article to be voted on by the voters of the regional school unit's member 
municipalities in the following form: 
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"Shall (name of the regional school unit) require that the voting at futUFe regional 
school unit budget meetings be done. by simple referendum within each member 
municipality of the regional school unit instead of using the multi-step budget 
validation referendum process? 
. 
Yes No" 
1. Procedure. The procedure for voting on the' article is as follows. 
A. Upon the initiation by the regional school unit board or upon receipt of a request 
and if the request complies with the requirement of this section, the regional school' 
unit board shall immediately notify the municipal officers within the regional school 
unit of the receipt of the request. 
B. The municipal officers of each municipality within the regional school unit shall 
cause the article to be placed on the ballots 'for that municipality for the next 
statewide election occurring at least 45 days after the date on which the municipal 
officers received the notice. 
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c. The warrants, notices and voting procedures to be followed within a municipality, 
including absentee voting procedures, are the same as those provided in Title 21-A. 
except that the duties of the Secretary of State must be performed by the regional 
school mut board. 
D. Municipal clerks shall, within 24 hours of the deterrirination of the results of the 
vote in their municipalities, certify to the regional school unit board the total number 
of votes cast in the affirmative and in the negative on the article. 
E. As soon as all of the results from all of the municipalities have been returned to 
the regional school unit board, the board shall meet and compute the total number of 
votes cast in the affirmative and in the. negative on the· article in all of the 
municipalities within the regional school unit. 
F. If the regional school unit board determines that there were more votes cast in the 
affirmative than there were in the negative on the article, the boa:rd shall declare that 
the article has passed. 
G. If the regional school unit board determines that the total number of votes cast on 
the article in the affirmative is equal to or less than those in the negative, the board 
shall declare that the article has not passed. 
H. 
The regional school unit board shall enter the board's declaration and 
computations in the board's records and send certified copies of the board's 
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declaration and computations to the municipal clerk of each municipality within the 
regiOIial school unit. 
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2. 
Application. 
Following the declaration that the article has· passed under 
subsection 1, paragraph F, the regional school unit board shall cause the voting at all 
future budget meetings of the regional school unit to be called within each municipality 
within the regional school unit after the proposed budget is approved by the board. The 
voting must be held in accordance with the procedures set out in sections 1501 to 1504, 
except that the warrant and absentee ballots for the meeting must be prepared and 
distributed to the municipal clerks at least 14 days prior to the date of the referendum. 
The boffi;d; may hold infonnatioFlali meetings on voting procedure and the budget prior to 
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voting. 
The board is. responsible for the form of the articles to be voted on in the 
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mtmicipalities, except as. otherwise provided by law. 
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J. Failure to approve a budget. If the budget or a p'ortion of the budget fails to 
receive a majority vote at the referendum, the regional school unit board shall make any 
changes to· the proposed budget. considered necessary and initiate a subsequent 
referendum to be conducted in accordance with the referendum procedure in subsection 
2, which must be held within 45 days from the date of the failed referendum. The board 
\ must continue in this manner until a school budget is finally adopted. 
Sec. 6. 20-A MRSA §1701-C,as amended by PL 2007, c. 668, §26 and affected 
by §55, is further amended to read: 
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§1701-C. Mandatory budget validation and cost center summary budget form 
Notwithstanding any other law, community school district budgets developed after 
January 1, 2008 must conform to the format and referendum procedures for regional 
school units as set forth in sections 1485 and 1486. A community school district is 
deemed to be a regional school- unit solely for the purpose of developing a budget 
pursuant to sections 1485 iffiEi.1 1486 and 1487. 
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Sec. 7. 20-A MRSA §15696, as amended by PL 2007, c. 668, §§39 to 41 and c. 
695, Pt. A, §23, is repealed. 
Sec. 8. 20-A MRSA §15697 is enacted to read: 
§15697. Incentives for conforming school administrative units 
. 1. Authorized adjustments. Notwithstanding any other provision of this Title, the 
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following adjustments to the calculation of subsidy under chapter 606-B are required. 
Beginning July 1, 2009 for each regional school urnt that has been created pursuant to 
chapter 103-A that is composed of 2 or more school administrative units that existed on 
and before July 1, 2008, and continuing for 3 fiscal years thereafter, and beginning on the 
July 1 st representing the first operational day of any regional school unit created 
according to the terms of chapter 103-A but after the various deadlines for SUbmitting, 
approving or implementing a reorganization plan and continuing for 3 fiscal years 
thereafter: 
A. The regional school unit receives more favorable consideration for approval and 
funding for school construction pursuant to rules of the state board; and 
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B. 
The regional school unit's full-value education mill rate pursuant to section 
15671-A is decreased by 2% for the purpose of calculating the regional school unit's 
required contribution to meet the local share of education costs established pursuant 
to section 15688, subsection 3-A. 
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Emergency clau.se; 
In view, of the emergency cited in the preamble, this 
legislation takes effect when approved. 
SUMMARY 
This bill makes several technical and substantive changes to the laws governing the 
consolidation of school administrative unit~ enacted in 2007 and amended in 2008. The 
bill converts the penalty system in the current law, which establishes a financial penalty 
to be applied to those school systems that fail to consolidate if required to, into a financial 
incentive system that provides a reduced local effort requirement for those sQhool systems 
that achieve the required consolidation during the first 3 years. The bill also authorizes 
regional school units to' establish ,a school budget adoption system that is an alternative to 
the current budget validation referendum process. The alternative system, if approved by 
the voters of the regional school unit at referendum, would allow the budget to be 
approved by the voters directly at referendum rather than go through the multi-step 
approval process whereby the budget needs to be adopted by several local votes in 
succession. The bill also makes several technical amendments, including: 
1. Adding a cross-reference that was inadvertently omi'tted in existing law so th,at the 
towns within any community school districts or school administrative districts that may 
exist in the future Can commit their taxes in the circumstance of a prolonged failure .to 
adopt a school budget, just as is currently available to muriicipal schools and regional 
school units; and 
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'2. Clarifying the procedures to be followed during a school budget referendum vote 
regarding the display of informational material in, the polling place and the voting booth. 
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