Sec. 1. 20-A MRSA §1305, sub-§2, as amended by PL 1993, c. 372, §1, is further amended to read:

2. Application. Following the board of director's declaration that the article has passed, the board shall cause the voting at all future district budget meetings and to be called within each municipality within the district and to be conducted by secret ballot referendum process. The voting must be held in accordance with the procedures set out in sections 1351 to 1354, except that the warrant and absentee ballots for the meeting voting must be prepared and distributed to the municipal clerks at least 14 days prior to the date of the referendum. The board may hold informational meetings on voting procedure and budget prior to voting. The board shall be is responsible for the form of the articles to be voted on in the municipalities, except as otherwise provided by law.

Sec. 2. 20-A MRSA §1305, sub-§3, as amended by PL 1993, c. 372, §2, is further amended to read:

3. Failure to approve a budget. If the budget or a portion of the budget fails to receive a majority vote at the referendum, the board of directors shall decide in a public proceeding whether subsequent votes on the portion of the budget that was defeated must be conducted consider modifications to the proposed budget or portions of the proposed budget that were not approved and submit subsequent budget proposals to the voters in accordance with the referendum procedure in subsection 2 or at a district budget meeting held at a single place in the district in accordance with procedures in sections 1303 and 1304. Subsequent votes conducted in accordance with the referendum procedure in subsection 2 must be held within 45 days. Subsequent votes conducted in accordance with sections 1303 and 1304 must be held within 30 days. These referenda or meetings must be held solely for the purpose of approving an alternative operating school budget to replace the part of the proposed budget that the voters failed to approve. The board may continue in this manner until an alternative budget is adopted, except that if the budget or a portion of the budget is submitted to referendum for a 3rd time, the board of directors may not submit a budget proposal with a total amount greater than the school budget for the previous year plus an increase adjusted for the Consumer Price Index, as defined in Title 36, section 5402, subsection 1.__If a budget or a portion of the budget fails to receive a majority vote at a 3rd referendum, a budget proposal submitted at any subsequent referendum must be lower than the proposal made at the previous referendum.