Voters will consider a 1.5 percent budget increase for the School Administrative District 49 at the polls in Albion, Benton, Clinton and Fairfield on Tuesday.

The proposed budget is $25.14 million, an increase of $367,145 over the current year’s budget of $24.77 million.

While the proposed increase to the total budget is 1.5 percent, the impact on area towns is greater than that.

This is because local taxpayers pay for only about a third of the school budget as a whole, but they will pick up an additional $315,900 in costs, about 86 percent of the increase.

Superintendent Dean Baker said the increase to local taxpayers is part of a larger pattern of cost shifts from the state and federal governments onto the local tax base.

Under the proposed budget, the four towns in the district will be asked to pay $8,848,520, a 3.7 percent increase over the current year’s assessment of $8,532,620.

Because of shifts in property tax values, the increase will hit some of the four towns harder than others.

Under the new budget, Albion tax with a 4.5 percent, or $56,580, more, while Benton will have the smallest percentage increase of 2.4 percent, or $42,462.

In Clinton, the increase will be 3.6 percent, or $65,887 and in Fairfield the increase will be 4 percent, or $150,969.

However, that doesn’t mean that the increase to the individual property taxpayer will increase by those percentages.

Fairfield Town Manager Josh Reny said the impact on Fairfield’s taxpayers would be largely offset by increases in the tax base, some of which came from the Summit Natural Gas pipeline that is being constructed through the town.

The proposed school budget comes to voters throughout the district after being approved by the school board earlier this year; individual warrant articles were approved by voters who attended a district budget meeting in May.

Last year, a 4.35 percent increase was approved by a districtwide vote of 587-432. In that vote, Fairfield voters opposed the increase by a vote of 185-141 after the Town Council published a letter urging its residents to vote the budget down.

This year, the Fairfield council has not taken a public position on the school budget.

In Albion, polls will be open in the Besse Building on Main Street from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. In Benton, polls will be open in the town office on Clinton Avenue from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. In Clinton, polls will be open in the town office on Baker Street from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. In Fairfield, polls will be open in the Community Center on Water Street from 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Matt Hongoltz-Hetling — 861-9287

mhhetling@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @hh_matt