The Sanford City Council has approved its new municipal budget and is sending the school department’s $68.9 million budget to voters for approval.

The council voted 5-2 to approve both budgets at its April 1 meeting, and also voted to set June 10 as election day, when voters will have their say on the school budget.

The council’s approved combined budget requires $41.8 million to be raised through taxes, a combined increase of about 5.2%. For the owner of a $350,000 home, that adds up to an increase of $295 a year, or about $24.50 a month.

School Superintendent Matt Nelson said the proposed school budget on its own is about a 6.4% increase over last year. He said the district was deliberately avoiding any major financial requests this year. 

“All things considered, we were really trying to maintain our services,” he said.

As always, concerns about state and federal subsidies loom over the budget process. Nelson said the district now knows what the state allocation will be, and the proposed budget reflects that, but no district in the state has been told what federal allocations, if any, will be available.

“That’s something where right now we’re not sure of,” he said.

Since taking office, President Donald Trump and his billionaire adviser Elon Musk have been slashing the federal budget, closing departments and canceling allocations to rein in costs. 

The Trump administration has focused on Maine since a confrontation in February between Trump and Gov. Janet Mills where the president threatened to withhold education funding to the state if Mills did not follow a presidential order banning transgender athletes from competing in school sports. Mills refused.

Just what that means for school districts in Maine is unclear. Nelson said the district receives funding through a number of different areas, from foodservice to Title I instruction. He said if the district were to lose that funding, it’s possible that some positions would have to be cut.

“It is something that’s a little bit uneasy,” he said. “I do know every day as we come back to look at it, we’re monitoring that to see if there’s going to be some impacts, because if there are, we’re going to feel those.”