According to a listserv e-mail from Portsmouth Supt. Susan Lusi today, the district has learned that the quirk of the S3050 legislation under which the Town Council restored half of the money cut from the schools has been changed in the closing days of the general assembly session. The 4-to-3 vote on June 23 would have exceeded the cap by $570K in order to restore half of the $1.2M cut from the 2011 school budget.

Lusi said, "We learned earlier this week that the loophole in the Senate 3050 legislation that would have allowed our Town Council to override the budget cap with a simple, rather than a super, majority was closed in this last legislative session with the passage of H7893 sub A – a 79 page piece of legislation that cleaned up housekeeping items in numerous pieces of legislation. This means that a supermajority of the Town Council would need to approve exceeding the tax cap."

As originally passed, S3050 technically required a supermajority (for our Town Council, 6 out of 7 votes) in the first year, 2007. The text of the bill, H7893a, is online, but you'll need to scroll down to line 64-20 to find the amended passage. It now clearly includes all years in the requirement for a supermajority, voiding last month's simple majority vote. Unless the Council makes further changes, this would mean that the original $1.2M cut to level fund the schools would be back on the table.

Lusi reminding residents of the importance of following the budget process and outlined the key upcoming meetings.

Please keep the following dates on your calendars:

7/12 – School Committee meeting (tentative, we are still polling the Committee on this date);

7/14 – Public hearing on the budget, Portsmouth Middle School Little Theater, 7 PM;

7/19 – Special Council meeting to consider the public comment and decide on any budget changes (tentative, under consideration by the Council);

7/26 – Budget adoption by the Council.
— e-mail from Supt. Lusi

Update: An anonymous reader offered a technical correction which I'm passing along: Since the modification to S3050 took effect after the Council's vote, their action would have been legal under the existing statute and would not have been voided. However, since this was just a provisional budget, the point is moot; any vote to exceed the cap on the final budget will need a supermajority.