New laws will provide limited funding for schools and jails

While two of the bills that were signed into law this month will help taxpayers in Washington County, the amount of funding they will provide is quite limited. One of the measures will give more state subsidy for school districts in the county and another will increase funding for county jails in the state, including the Washington County Jail.

The measure to amend the school funding law, LD 2226, is expected to deliver about $2.5 million more annually for school districts in Washington County. State Senator Marianne Moore of Calais notes that it will benefit all Washington County school systems. RSU 37, based in Harrington, is projected to receive the most additional funding, at $635,000. Other projections include the Machias school system receiving $294,000, Eastport $141,000 and Calais $99,000.

Changes to the state's Essential Programs and Services funding formula have been urged for years, and while the new law will make some modifications, it would still have the formula rely to a large degree on property valuations, instead of income, in determining a community's ability to pay for education. Under the measure, the formula will be adjusted so that the portion that is based on a municipality's property valuation will now be blended, with 90% based on valuation and 10% on poverty level.

In her testimony in support of the bill, Sunrise County School System Superintendent MaryEllen Day noted that the Quoddy area has high-valued ocean frontage but local wages do not reflect how much houses are selling for. "Relying on just property values to determine wealth, or ability to pay, has hurt my district tremendously," she testified. For instance, in this area in 202223 the state school subsidy covered nearly 65% of the Calais school department's $9.5 million budget, while only providing 12% of Lubec's $2.4 million budget and 11% of Eastport $3.2 million budget, with those coastal towns having high property valuations but less wealth than Calais.

While the new law will help to some degree with the local share required to be raised by property taxes for schools, there are some concerns about the measure. One is that the formula change to account for income will not be based on average incomes in a municipality but rather on the poverty level, which will be determined by the number of students eligible for free lunch. "We have to push to make sure that parents fill out the forms" for reduced and free lunch so that the poverty level numbers will be as accurate as they can be, Senator Moore says. She notes that those numbers also help with funding for some federal programs for schools.

Another concern was focused on special education funding, but Senator Moore says that will not be changed by the new law. "Special ed funding will remain the same," and schools will have the opportunity to modify their student numbers for any changes that occur during the year.

Pointing out that the school funding formula has not been changed since 2005, Senator Moore says that the legislature is expected to consider more changes next year.

Funding for county jails

While the bill to provide more state funding for county jails was enacted, it was substantially amended so that there will be less funding than initially proposed. LD 2232, after being amended by the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee, would have increased annual state funding for county jails from $20.3 million to $30 million beginning in July 2026 and then required annual increases based on the Consumer Price Index. However, the new law will provide less than that. Last year, the legislature had passed a bill to provide $4 million for county jails during each year of the state budget's biennium, but only the first year's $4 million was funded. The law just enacted will now provide the additional $4 million in funding.

Senator Moore noted in her testimony that the cost of operating the Washington County Jail is about 30% of the county's overall budget. State funding for county jails has remained largely stagnant for years, she noted, while the cost of operating the jails has continued to increase significantly. "As a result, counties have been forced to make up the difference -- placing an increasing burden on local property taxpayers."

Last year the legislature considered a bill that would have required the state to annually provide 35% of the cost for county jails, but it was amended to have the County Corrections Professional Standards Council conduct a study of state funding of county jails. Its report, issued earlier this year, pointed to the increasing costs for county jails in the state, with total medical care costs having increased 36% since 2023 and personnel costs have gone up 25% over the last two years. State funding for jails, though, has stagnated at $20 million annually and currently equals only 16% of the cost for the county jails.

Senator Moore says she's not sure if the legislature will revisit county jail funding. "I hope they would, with the cost of jails and all of the state requirements and the state not funding those costs."

Other measures

The legislature did not approve funding this year for four state troopers for Washington County to help with rural patrol. The measure was passed last year by the legislature but was not funded then and was carried over to this session.

"We tried, during the wee hours of the morning," Senator Moore says of the effort to get the bill funded this year. Amendments to include that funding in the supplemental budget were indefinitely postponed in the House, and proposals to include the funding when the Appropriations Committee considered where to spend any additional state funding also failed.

Senator Moore's bill to allow political subdivisions, including municipalities and counties, to declare bankruptcy, which had been filed to assist Washington County out of its fiscal hole, had been amended by the State and Local Government Committee. The revised bill, which was enacted, requires that counties must file their audits within 12 months with the state auditor's office, which must ensure that the audits are complete. While counties were already required to complete audits, there had been no time frame specified.