AUGUSTA -- The Legislature enacted a $6.3 billion two-year budget Wednesday night after fine-tuning a plan to cut the cost of running Maine schools.
The budget, which has the backing of Democratic Gov. John Baldacci, was enacted with a 112-29 vote in the House and a 28-7 vote in the Senate. The tallies fulfill the two-thirds votes needed in the Senate and House to ensure the budget will take effect by the start of the next budget cycle on July 1. Simple majority votes would have delayed the startup of the budget until three months after the Legislature adjourned.
Lawmakers from both parties praised the cooperative effort that produced the budget.
"It's a bipartisan budget, which I think has demanded the best from us all," said House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, D- North Haven.
The House endorsed the budget on a preliminary vote of 114-27 shortly before 1:30 a.m. Wednesday. Additional votes in that chamber and in the Senate followed later in the day.
At $6.3 billion, the proposed budget is 7.8 percent more than the $5.8 billion budget for the two years ending June 30. Supporters of the proposed budget say that increase, while noteworthy, is within the spending limits that a 2005 tax-relief law imposed on all levels of government in Maine.
Although the Legislature's Appropriations Committee unanimously endorsed a budget that included a school-district merger plan, that part of the budget had to be changed in the House to overcome opposition there.
Supporters of the consolidation concept said the current system is not sustainable. The budget would shrink the number of school districts in Maine from 290 to about 80, for a projected state savings of $36.5 million in the second year of the budget cycle, and ongoing state and local savings after that.
Some lawmakers acknow-ledged that Maine would be venturing into uncharted territory with the plan.
"This whole thing may fall on its nose. On the other hand, it may really take off," said Sen. Peter Mills, R-Cornville. He said that lawmakers' work was not finished with the enactment of the budget and that they must remain aggressive in their pursuit of a solution.
New districts will be expected to have at least 2,500 students, or no fewer than 1,200 students when geography and other factors make larger districts impractical.
Indian and island districts will be exempt from the merger requirement.
Efficient, "high-performing" districts will not have to merge but they will have to control costs. A district that cannot merge because all of its neighbors have already done so will be off the hook.
The revised budget gives school districts extra time to consolidate in some cases and reduces penalties for districts that fail to merge.
School districts will be required to submit merger plans to the state education commissioner by Dec. 15, subject to subsequent approval by local voters. Those local referendums will be held Jan. 15, but they could be postponed until June 10 for compelling reasons, according to the Department of Education.
Sen. Kevin Raye, R-Perry, said the approved school plan represents a vast improvement over an earlier version, which he described as "too heavy-handed and too top-down."
Nonetheless, he remained concerned about the impact on rural districts, particularly the large geographic size they will need to get the minimum number of students.
Despite the focus on consolidation in this week's legislative debates, merging school districts is only one small piece of the $6.3 billion budget, which will provide funding for most state programs during the two years that start July 1.
The projected savings from consolidation equal less than 1 percent of overall spending, but the idea has proven far more controversial than anything else in the budget.
The budget will raise the state's share of school funding to 55 percent and fund the University of Maine System at a high...
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