Council (foreground) and School Committee in the PHS Gym.

The longest day of the year felt even longer tonight, as 200 Portsmouth citizens sweltered in the bleachers in the PHS gym watching the Town Council vote by a 5-2 margin to not exceed the state tax cap, effectively level funding the schools for next year. The split was along party lines, with Democrats Dennis Canario and Jim Seveney supporting the request to exceed the cap and fund the schools and "no" votes from Republicans Peter McIntyre, Huck Little, Keith Hamilton, and Jeff Plumb joined by Independent Karen Gleason.

It was a bitter, sweaty end to a meeting which had begun with some promise. School Committee chair Dick Carpender, in his opening statement, said that they had been able to identify $350K in possible cuts, done "in such a way as to not impact the basic education plan or affect athletics, music, art, or extracurriculars." Carpender noted that on top of the existing gap in the budget of $140K, this really amounted to a $492K cut to the budget.

And on the Town side, administrator Bob Driscoll reported that they had been able to shave an additional $207K. But all the effort on both sides had still failed to bring the total budget number below the S3050 tax cap. Even with the best efforts on both sides, the budget remained stubbornly $1M above the amount the town is allowed to levy in taxes next year.

There was some talk about the car tax, and about tax rates. Town administration recommended a scheme that would provide a $3K exemption on car value, but it was, in Driscoll's words, "a sideshow" since it still counted toward the total tax levied. The bottom line is that the Council would need a 6/7 majority vote, and the impact on taxpayers would be in the vicinity of $0.29/thousand, or about $100/year on an average $350K house.

Jeff Plumb suggested dipping into the town's reserve fund, which was met with concern from Finance Director Dave Faucher because of the possible impact on the town's bond rating. Karen Gleason suggested cuts that should be "fair across the board. The schools are 70% of the budget." She also suggested "furloughs for every employee," including the schools.

Dennis Canario tried rational arguement. "People move to Portsmouth because of the services and the community," he said. "If we want to keep the services, then taxes are going to have to increase marginally. The state dropped the ball."

But Plumb played the recession card, arguing that it would hurt people too much for taxes "to go above and beyond at this time."

Jim Seveney also tried reason. "Are you interested in the value that Town and school services bring to the community?"

But Pete McIntyre knew what the problem was. "School budgets continue to go up because of the laws," he said, blaming the requirements and regulations of the state.

Administrator Bob Driscoll put it bluntly: "The real question is how much do you want to spend for the services you want to provide."

Dennis Canario made a motion to exceed the cap "in order to preserve services," and with the explicit goal "to keep the number as low as possible." There was loud, sustained applause from the bleachers.

But the applause was short-lived as the motion failed by 5-2.

Gleason warned the Council. "I'm hearing that next year is going to be really difficult," she said without identifying the source of her information, and arguing that the school committee should go "roll up their sleeves once again."

Canario expressed some frustration. "If the School Committee came back with another 300 or 700 it isn't going to be enough. You're telling them to level fund, and it's going to affect sports and music."

The public will finally get their opportunity to speak, said McIntyre, at the July 14 final budget hearing.

Editorial note: It is one thing to have lived through the last Tent Meeting where people fed up with their taxes made arbitrary decisions based on their wallets. It is quite another to see a majority of the elected Town Council refuse to accept reality — the reality of state budget cuts that turned a reasonable school budget into something that exceeded the cap, the reality that there is a clause in the tax cap that provides relief in precisely these situations, the reality that a $1.2M cut to the schools is simply not sustainable. I might not agree with the PCC, but at least I can understand where they're coming from. They're not elected to serve the common good of the town. The Council is. And a majority of this Council, tonight, definitively gave the back of their hand to the future of Portsmouth. In some ways, this hurts worse than the Tent Meeting.