SURRY — The Surry School is in the enviable position of having a carryover balance, but a few residents would like it eliminated to reduce the tax burden.

At the annual Town Meeting Monday, resident Valerie Moon questioned why the town isn’t using more of the school’s half-million-dollar carryover balance to reduce the tax commitment.

The proposed carryover balance from this school year’s budget is $536,442. The Surry School Committee is applying $275,000 of the carryover to the 2012-13 school budget.

Union 93 Superintendent Mark Hurvitt cautioned against using up the entire balance, holding the town of Sedgwick up as a warning.

“We don’t want to do what Sedgwick did,” Hurvitt said. “Sedgwick two years ago pretty much spent down the whole way; then they hit a cliff.”

An accounting error led to a smaller carryover balance in Sedgwick than the town thought it had, which led to a budget freeze for all discretionary items for the last half of the school year.

Hurvitt said the School Committee is planning to spend down the carryover balance in a “reasonable way over the next several years.”

For more of the latest news, pick up a copy of The Ellsworth American.