“Due to the continued use of this outdated and inaccurate formula, Mount Desert has been picking up an ever-increasing and unequal tab for the cost of education,” said Mount Desert Selectman Patrick Smallidge.

The MDI League of Towns-sponsored forum was the latest in the ongoing debate of the 40-year-old funding formula perpetuated by the Mount Desert selectmen and several vocal residents.

The formula, based 67 percent on property valuation and 33 percent on high school enrollment penalizes towns with high property valuations and low enrollment, say its critics.

The cost of funding the high school falls on the shoulders of the four island towns: Bar Harbor, Mount Desert, Tremont and Southwest Harbor.

Education officials in the four member towns support the formula.

Mount Desert residents first approved the funding formula in 1965 as a desired alternative to a state-supported formula for the regional high school based on 100 percent valuation.

There are two ways of looking at the funding formula, said School Union 98 superintendent Rob Liebow; you can evaluate its fairness based on taxpayers’ ability to pay or you can focus on a per-pupil cost calculation.

“This common resource is one I believe everyone should fund together,” said Mr. Liebow. “If one looks at this from the perspective of a like-valued property owner, then the formula is about as fair as it gets.”

The formula is actually a hybrid of the two lenses, said high school committee member Paul Murphy. “The per-pupil component serves as a moderator to the formula.”

“Mount Desert is not stable in enrollment or valuation,” said Mr. Smallidge, arguing that the formula should have a periodic review. Although Mount Desert selectmen would like to see a formula based on 100 percent enrollment, they are open to compromise, he said.

If evaluated by cost-per-pupil alone, the funding formula indicates a disparity. In a cost-per-student analysis of the upcoming school year, Bar Harbor, Mount Desert and Southwest Harbor pay about $12,000 per student, while Mount Desert pays $27,000.

“The argument for per-student cost seems to say that anyone who doesn’t have kids shouldn’t have to pay for schools – it’s a violation of the thought that the community is responsible, of civic duty,” said Dick Atlee of Southwest Harbor.

If judged by each town’s relative tax contribution, the formula is equitable. Under the formula, Mount Desert will raise 1.2 mills in tax effort to support the high school for the upcoming school year, while Bar Harbor, Southwest Harbor and Tremont will raise between 1.6 and 1.7 mills. A property owner in Mount Desert with a home worth $350,000 paid $380 in taxes toward the cost of education this year, while a property owner in Bar Harbor with a home of the same value paid $550. As home values increase, Mount Desert property owners continue to pay slightly less than Bar Harbor property owners with homes of the same value.

“Do I understand that if I swapped my half-million-dollar property in Southwest for a half-million-dollar property in Mount Desert, that my assessment would go down?” asked Southwest Harbor selectwoman Kristin Hutchins. She received a resounding “yes.”

During the discussion, residents and officials from the three other member town voiced concerns that altering the formula in favor of Mount Desert would place unfair tax burden on their municipalities.

Three Mount Desert residents not in office spoke in favor of changing the formula.

One of those was former selectman Rick Savage.

“We are blessed with a hugely high assessment, but it is also a curse…this formula is not standing the test of time,” he said.

“In my opinion the method used to fund the high school is unfair and morally wrong,” said the funding formula’s most vocal critic, George Peckham.

“I’d like to turn that around,” said Bar Harbor Town Council member Bob Garland. If Mount Desert were to reduce its contribution to the high school, other towns would either have to pick up a drastically increased share of funding or cuts would have to be made, he said.

Mount Desert selectmen have long argued that the formula penalizes towns with high property valuation and low enrollment. Two years ago, the high school committee formed a subcommittee charged with evaluating the formula’s fairness. Mount Desert resident Gail Marshall was chairman of the subcommittee. Ms. Marshall, now the chairman of the high school committee, supports the existing formula.

During the long-term investigation of the formula, Mr. Liebow and Mount Desert tax assessor John Brushwein worked together to analyze the formula based on taxpayers’ ability to pay. They ultimately concluded that the formula was fair.