Over the last few months, a number of Maine cities and towns saw their state education aid cut significantly, partially restored, then threatened again. Now, they are relegated to fighting over a small pot of state funding with several traditional mill towns struggling to deal with the loss of a major employer.

The situation is a sign that Maine, in the long term, has to increase its financial commitment to schools, and that, short term, a supplemental budget is necessary to prioritize the programs and initiatives that require taxpayer funds.

Just as he has in the past, Gov. Paul LePage has said that he will not offer a supplemental spending package. Instead, he is sending his requests to the Legislature one by one.

In one request, he asked for $38 million to pay for tax breaks for businesses. Ultimately, the bill was passed as part of a compromise with Democrats that produced an additional $15 million in education funding to help the 131 school districts that were set to lose state aid in the coming year.

The extra state aid was a positive for those districts, but it did not make them whole. In total, the districts were set to lose at least $23 million, and possibly more, and that’s without factoring in rising costs.

The cuts that would have resulted without the additional funding — and still might with the incomplete package — are an indication of just how tight things are at Maine schools.

During the recession and its aftermath, overall spending on schools dropped in Maine more than in any other New England state, and more than most states throughout the country.

Districts still have not recovered, and without more help they will remain vulnerable to relatively slight changes in state funding each year.

Yet even the small, recently approved increase is now threatened, as lawmakers look for money to help towns that suffer a sudden reduction in tax base when a major employer cuts back or shuts down.

There’s no doubt those towns need help. The state school funding formula assumes that towns with high total property values don’t need as much state aid, but it uses a three-year average. So when a mill loses value suddenly, the formula does not immediately recognize just how much the town has lost in tax revenue.

A bill before the Legislature, L.D. 281, would help iron that out for towns that have recently suffered setbacks, such as Skowhegan and Madison, as well as for any future communities that suffer the same fate.

But without a supplemental budget, funding for the bill for next year would come from the same pot of money that is being used to help other school districts.

In addition, LePage is seeking significant raises for some state law enforcement officers, though not all of them. That in turn has raised questions about compensation for other state workers that have not seen a pay raise in some time.

These issues do not exist in a vacuum, yet that is how the Legislature is discussing them.

Instead, these outstanding spending priorities, and others, should be rolled into a supplemental budget so that lawmakers can conduct a full accounting of the state’s resources, and decide, together and all at once, which are the state’s most pressing needs.