BAR HARBOR — A Mount Desert Island High School budget for next year of $11.94 million was approved by the high school board on Feb. 8.
Residents of the four MDI towns will have an opportunity to vote on the budget at the April 7 school board meeting.
The budget for fiscal year 2021-22 is $164,184 higher than the current year’s budget, an increase of 1.39 percent.
Taxpayers in the four MDI towns will see a total increase in their assessments for the high school of $435,951 or 5.14 percent. There are several reasons for that increase including the loss of about $150,000 in tuition surcharge revenue.
For the past 20 years, off-island towns that send students to the high school have been paying a tuition surcharge of 10 percent to help pay off the debt from construction of the school’s arts wing. That debt was fully paid off in November.
Bar Harbor taxpayers will see a high school assessment increase of 2.1 percent; Mount Desert, 3.5 percent; Southwest Harbor, 6 percent; and Tremont, 2 percent.
The formula that is used to calculate the assessments factors in each town’s total property valuation and the number of students each town has enrolled in the high school, with the property valuation carrying twice as much weight.
Dick Broom
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