AUGUSTA — City councilors have approved a $91.3 million city and school budget expected to raise property taxes by 2.5%.

Councilors voted 7-1 Thursday to approve the latest budget proposal, although some of the seven councilors who voted for the budget said they did so with some apprehension, particularly about the school’s $41.3 million share of it, a roughly $3 million increase officials said was largely attributable to escalating special education costs. School officials said the school budget approved by the school board in March cut 16 positions.

However some councilors, who previously noted most of those 16 positions were already vacant and just won’t be filled, said the school budget should have been cut more. They said having to spend so much on schools meant the city would be less likely to be able to address other, long-term needs, such as replacing the public works garage or  improving neglected city roads.

“I still have questions as to if real effort was put forth on the school board’s part to do everything they could to help the citizens of Augusta still live in an affordable community,” Ward 2 Councilor Kevin Judkins said. “The apprehension, the disappointment, I saw this year is there was a little extra money that we could have (used to) take care of some long overdue things for our city, not just the school. It’d be nice if people could take a ride on Augusta roads without chipping a tooth. And because of what the school needs, we’re not going to have the money to do those things. We’re not going to catch up; we’re just treading water.”

As it stands, the spending plan is expected to result in the owner of a $135,881 home, the average assessed home value in Augusta, paying $3,315.73 in property taxes, an $81.54 increase over the current year, according to Jared Mills, city manager.

While voting for the combined city and school budget, Judkins said he plans to vote against approving the school budget when it goes to residents in the June 10 referendum. Unlike the school department budget, the city’s share of the budget does not go to voters for approval, so Thursday night’s council vote on that part of the budget was final.

At-Large Councilor Stephanie Sienkiewicz said she’s proud the city cares about education, and she’s proud to vote for the budget as proposed, saying money spent on education will improve the lives of students who are future residents of Augusta.

“Many times when municipalities are up against the wall, they go first to the school budget to cut some dollars,” Sienkiewicz said. “In the long run that ends up being a losing strategy. It ends up causing a cyclical cycle where individuals that are here are unable to access all the benefits that education provides. And if you invest, instead, in education, you enter a cycle where the residents of your municipality are able to obtain better jobs with higher wages. There’s less crime, better health outcomes, and all these things directly relate to what we pay for in our municipal government.”

Mills’ original proposed budget of $92.6 million would have raised taxes 9.8%. The tax impact was reduced in large part by the city taking an additional $2 million from the fund balance, which is made up of funds unspent in previous years.

Ward 3 Councilor Mike Michaud, the lone vote against the budget, said he voted against it because many taxpayers can’t afford another tax increase this year, and because the money taken from fund balance to help balance the budget should have been put aside to instead address long-term infrastructure needs, such as a new public works garage.

“This will be close to 17% we’ve raised taxes in Augusta in the last four years,” Michaud said. “That’s pretty substantial, and we have to find a way to live within our means.”

Ward 4 Councilor Eric Lind suggested that next year a new auditing firm, and a review of internal controls on finances, should be added to help prevent school officials’ use of the incorrect amount of fund balance the school department had leftover from last year.

The miscommunication happened when the school department’s now-former business manager asked auditors how much money was left over in this year’s school budget that could then be used to help offset expenses in the proposed budget. Administrators said the auditors provided them with figures from the 2022-23 school year — $3.4 million — rather than the money left over from the 2023-24 school year, which was about $450,000.

School officials initially built the proposed school budget using the larger, incorrect amount.