LEWISTON — Voters will be asked Jan. 14 to let the School Department use $409,000 in state aid to eduction.

School Superintendent Bill Webster said that money was allocated by the state Legislature in June, after voters approved the School Department’s $58.4 million budget and $17.1 million in property taxes.

“Our budget was approved in May, and the Legislature didn’t adopt their final budget until the middle of June,” Webster said. “There are communities that had a second budget vote earlier. Bangor had one in November, and Portland had theirs in September.”

Webster said changes in MaineCare funding for schools was cut by about $1.5 million in the fiscal year 2013-14 budget. His department had tried to make cuts and other budgetary adjustments to cover those costs.

“But what we did was insufficient, so we need this second vote, which, I need to emphasize, will not have any impact on the tax rate,” Webster said. “It’s increasing our budget to the point we can spend additional state funds that had been allocated last year.”

Since the MaineCare changes will be a recurring expense, Webster said he had hoped to keep the additional $409,000 from the state to cover MaineCare in the future.

“We were hoping to find enough other areas to save sufficient funds so we could pay the MaineCare liability and then carry forward into next year the additional state revenue,” he said. “But, as we closed our books, it became clear that we could not do that without significant cuts to staff or programming.”

According to state rules, Lewiston voters need to approve any additional spending not covered in the previous budget. Voter approval would let the school spend that money but will not change property taxes, Webster said. It will reset the school’s spending plan for the 2013-14 fiscal year at $58.8 million and local property taxes for education at $17.1 million.

City councilors Tuesday adopted the revised budget and agreed to put the matter on the ballot.

City Clerk Kathy Montejo said the sole polling place will be the Longley Elementary School, 145 Birch St. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

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