(Editorial note: After further study of the proposed budget, it became clear that the total debt service is actually a shocking $3,040,923, of which the $560,397 represents only the amount previously subsidized by the State. Appropriate edits have been made below to reflect this data. A version of this post is being submitted to the Brunswick Times Record as a letter to the editor.)
If you live in Brunswick, you are likely aware of the passionate debate swirling around the 2011-2012 proposed school budget. Facing a $3 million shortfall and tasked with developing a budget that includes no tax increase, the superintendent's office has proposed closing the gap by "mothballing" Jordan Acres Elementary School and eliminating over 32 employee positions. While I have strong opinions on the effects of such drastic programming and staffing cuts, my focus is on one of the most glaring line items in the proposed budget found on page 2: $3,040,923 in debt service, an increase of $1,287,291 from the previous year.
From my understanding, the debt service primarily reflects payment due on the loans incurred by the Town to build the High School and the Harriet Beecher Stowe Elementary School. State aid in the amount of $560,397 towards the debt service paid in previous years is over, and it is now up to the town to pay its bills. However, rather than directly paying our debt, we are taking the $3,040,923 due from the operating budget of the school. As a result, a difficult budget year has been made tragic. As a town we are contemplating closing an entire school, opening Stowe at or above capacity, laying off talented teachers and staff, and eliminating vital educational programs, all rather than face our responsibility of paying for what we, as a town, agreed to buy.
As a town, the adults of voting age collectively agreed to assume a significant amount of debt in order to build these two new schools. Whether you agree with those decisions, is no longer the question. The schools are here; the debt is on the books. Now that the debt has come due, we, those same adults that decided to buy the schools, are balking at paying for them ourselves through our taxes and instead are laying it squarely on the backs of the town's children. And not in some far-off, hypothetical, 20-years-from-now-when-they-have-incomes-of-their-own, way, but immediately. Starting in September, if the grown-ups in the town chose to not pay for what they decided to buy, the children will pay every single day.
I don't want to pay higher taxes anymore than the next citizen. Our family will certainly feel the pinch of higher taxes. This past year, we transitioned from a two income household to one income so that one parent could focus on caring for our child with special needs. However painful the extra tax may be, I still recognize that, as the adults, it is our responsibility to pay the bill for the new schools. I see the situation akin to my considering paying for the costly repairs our family is now facing to our roof due to ice and snow damage by hawking my 11 year old's trumpet, chemistry set, and sports equipment, and my 8 year old's physical therapy aides and his beloved set of Harry Potter books. Such an action would most surely call into question my parenting judgement, and yet, as a town, this is exactly what we are contemplating doing.
The Town of Brunswick is about to teach its children a very important lesson. The question is, which lesson will we choose? Will we show that you must take responsibility for your decisions and pay for the debts you incur? Or will we teach them that you do what is most comfortable for you at that moment without regard to the impact your actions will have on others? The adults of the town must take the debt burden off the shoulders of our children and pay our bills - yes, through increased taxes - because it is the right thing to do.