Under Maine law, the state is supposed to pay 55 percent of local education costs, and local school districts are expected to pick up the rest. Penalties are imposed on those communities that fail to pay their share. But with state education reimbursement currently at about 45 percent of local costs, one lawmaker wants to make sure that local school districts aren't penalized for failing to meet their obligations.

It's been a long time since state Rep. Howard McFadden, a Dennysville Republican, has seen anything close to 55 percent for local education reimbursement from the state. But McFadden says communities in his Washington County district could be penalized if the state discontinues its waiver for school districts that fail to meet their financial goals under the state's essential programs and services policy.

McFadden thinks a bill submitted state Rep. Peggy Rotundo, a Lewiston Democrat, could provide some additional protection. "The state now is only contributing about 45 percent, and the people voted through referendum four or five years ago for 55, but the state doesn't have any money," he says. "They just can't afford to pay the 55 percent, that's all there is to it. So therefore, it should help local control a lot, I would think, with the towns or districts paying 55 percent and the state paying only 45 percent."

Rotundo says the state has curtailed the amount of money it was supposed to give back to municipalities in the last two budget revisions and has appropriately chosen to waive penalties for districts that have been forced to reduce their local required share.

But the EPS law remains on the books and Rontudo told members of the Legislature's Education Committee that she wants to make sure that local school districts do not face further revenue cuts when the waiver expires on June 30 of next year when Maine will have a new governor and a new Legislature.

"My bill recognizes that for the next few years, we're going to have difficulties in meeting the state's obligation in terms of the 55 percent funding," Rotundo says. "So it recognizes that, and it recognizes that local communities during that time should not be penalized if they can't meet their obligations, since we won't be able to meet ours."

"The basic idea of this is if the state can't meet its obligation to fund 55 percent of EPS costs because we're in a terrible economic period, they shouldn't turn around then and withhold state subsidy from a local unit because they haven't been able to meet their full required local contribution because of the same budget situation that they're in," says Richard Spencer, an attorney representing the Lewiston School Department and the author of the bill being sponsored by Rep. Rotundo.

Spencer says the bill boils down to basic fairness. But state Sen. Justin Alfond wonders whether there could be unintended consequences. For example, might communities intentionally spend less because they know they won't be penalized?

"In most typical communities, only one out of four families have a child in the school, so if all of a sudden locals who are going to vote for these budgets during the budget validation process, which we learned a lot about yesterday, they're going to say, 'Wait a second, this is great. You've got 80 percent, or the 45 percent or the 100 percent and now we can reduce our local taxes, we can pay less for education, Hallelujah," he said.

Rep. Rotundo says she can't support Alfond's suggestion. "I don't believe that. I think local communities struggle to do the very best they can for the children in their community, and I really don't see it working in that way. I s ee it as a recognition of the reality that taxpayers are going to have a hard time meeting their obligations to make up for state funding."

No one spoke in opposition to the bill, although a spokesman for the Maine School Management Assocation said she thought the Legislature should instead focus on restoring school funding levels to something closer to the 55 percent goal.