HOULTON, Maine — For the second straight year, taxes will remain stable in the Shiretown.
Thanks to efforts Monday evening by the Houlton Town Council to creatively fund several line items in the 2014 budget, the town will be able to keep its mil rate steady at $21.75 per $1,000 of valuation.
The town will take $100,000 from the Roads 2000 account to offset taxes and an additional $51,731 to purchase two new vehicles for the public works department.
The Roads 2000 account has been funded at $200,000 in recent years. Last year, the town used $180,000 from that account to fix roads, leaving a carryover of $20,000. So far this year, the town has only spent $5,000 from the account. About $60,000 remains in the Roads 2000 account for repairs to town streets.
Also included in the plan is to fund economic development categories such as the Chamber of Commerce, NMDC (Northern Maine Development Commission) and consultants/economic development (which includes the Southern Aroostook Development Corporation) lines in the budget with money from the North Street and Downtown TIF accounts.
A portion of what the town pays for the rest area will also come from these funds since the Tourist Information Center is viewed as a source of economic development.
By using the TIF funds in this way, the economic development categories in the 2014 budget will be changed to zero. Some councilors and a few members of the public expressed concerns that removing those expenses from the budget gives the impression that those lines are not supported by the town, when in fact they are. It could also create the potential for those accounts not to be funded in future years.
“All of these items were in our budget for 2014,” Council Chairman Paul Cleary said. “With the TIF accounts able to pay for a majority of this stuff, we are able to pull those (expenses) out of our budget. This is a one-year type thing. Next year, the council will have to decide to use TIF accounts again. This is one-year quick fix to balance our budget.”
Resident Fred Grant questioned why the town was taking $100,000 from the TIF fund, but only spending $78,452 for economic development purposes. The remaining $21,548 will stay in the town’s economic development account.
In other business, the council heard a presentation from Ron Smith of RHR Smith and Company on the 2013 annual audit, as well as the six-month audit for 2014. Smith told councilors the town’s financial position had increased $140,000 in its undesignated fund balance.
“You went from about $340,000 (in surplus) to about $480,000, largely in part to favorable revenue collecting and unspent appropriations,” he said. “Based on your operating budget of about $9 million, we would like to see you have about $700,000 (in surplus) which would be 30 days of operating costs.”
If the town wanted to have 60 days of operating costs in its reserve account, it would need to have $1.4 million and 90 days would be $2.1 million.
“You have about 23 days of operating costs, which is much better than the 15 days you were at last year,” he said.
Smith said coming into 2014, the town had $714,000 in TIF funds.
For the second consecutive year, the town’s ambulance service was noted as a concern.
“Historically, Houlton would overspend its rescue department to be compensated and alleviated by excess revenues for ambulance runs,” Smith said. “That hasn’t been the case for two years. This year, you overspent your rescue department by $50,000 and your revenue collections were $50,000 less than what you expected.”
He encouraged the council to take a much closer look at this account when preparing the 2015 budget this fall.
During public comments, resident Phil Berniache said the TIF funds were not originally created to fund line items in the budget.
“The TIF was to help businesses out,” he said. “Now, we’re robbing Peter to pay Paul.”
He also criticized the group for how it handled its hiring of new town manager (see accompanying story.)
“It’s been three months and we still don’t know where we stand,” he said. “The town needs some changes. The people need to know what you are doing here.”
In other agenda items, the council:
• Awarded a bid of $32,635 to Quirk Ford of Augusta for the purchase of a 2015 Ford F-350 truck and granted a bid of $19,096 to Yorks of Houlton for a 2014 Ford F-150 truck. The public works department will use the new vehicles to replace ones that are no longer road worthy. The bid from Yorks was not the lowest bid for the Ford F-150. Quirks of Augusta bid $18,901. However, councilors felt that for $195 extra they would rather spend their money with a local business.
• Accepted a bid of $89,710 from Buildings Etc of Houlton for constructing a snowmobile bridge over B Stream.
• Appointed Chuck Taylor to an unexpired vacancy on the RSU 29 school board. Taylor was the only applicant.
• Named Noreen Foster as an out-of-town member to the Houlton Planning Board for a five-year term.
The next regular council meeting is set for Monday, Aug. 11 at 6 p.m.
