HOULTON, Maine – The nine-member Board of Budget Review recommended on Monday night that the Houlton 2025 proposed budget be cut by over $1 million dollars, citing concerns about rising taxes.
Monday night was the review board’s final budget discussion before making recommendations that a $15.5 million budget be approved by the town council prior to a January public hearing on the matter.
Despite the board’s cut to the initial proposed 2025 budget, it is still a $1.8 million increase over 2024.
In November, Town Manager Jeremy Smith presented the first version of the 2025 proposed town budget to the town council. It was the first time the council was aware that the proposed budget for the coming year was $2.45 million more than the 2024 $13.7 million budget.
At the time, several town councilors expressed concern about such a large increase, especially since property owners have been hit hard by successive town tax increases.
“The budget has to get cut,” said town councilor James Peters during the Nov. 12 meeting.
Since that meeting, the Board of Budget Review has met several times with department heads and the town manager to carefully analyze line items in the budget and determine what can get cut as well as what needs increasing.
Some of the biggest spending discussions related to payroll, roads, code enforcement software, several items in the police budget and the Houlton Humane Society contract.
The board expressed concerns regarding a nearly $250,000 uptick in employee benefits and asked the town manager for clarification on how benefits for less than a handful of new employees could increase that much.
Smith did not have specifics about the breakdown of expenses.
“We’ll do the calculations more accurately for the council,” he said.
The administrative budget was reduced by $28,000, the requested $12,000 software for code enforcement was denied, the Houlton Humane Society’s $40,629 annual contract was cut in half and the roads budget was increased from $200,000 in 2024 to $700,000 for the coming year.
Of that $700,000, the board earmarked $155,000 for the Reservoir Road Project to be financed over five years.
Police surveillance cameras were discussed and several board members expressed concerns about the cameras just sitting in storage and that the ongoing expense of paying annual licensing fees was not worth the expense.
Historically, the Houlton Police Department contracts with the Houlton Humane Society to take in stray dogs and cats as well as provide veterinary needs for abandoned and abused animals.
According to state law, municipalities must have facilities to take in these animals and law enforcement officers and animal control officers are required to ensure that any injured companion animal that is not with an owner be given proper medical attention.
Over the course of several budget review meetings, the board has asked the chief of police for details about what the Humane Society contract includes and how many stray animals the police department takes to the humane society.
The chief of police and the town manager did not know.
“All I can tell you is they brought in 250 animals in 2024,” Chief Tim DeLuca said. “Quite a few animals come into the police department and more are released from the PD.”
DeLuca did not express support for the Humane Society’s work with the police department, although several board members did when it was suggested that the town no longer fund their services.
After a lengthy discussion, the board opted to recommend $20,000 of the contract amount be awarded to the Humane Society and the remaining $20,629 to animal control efforts.
If the proposed 2025 budget was approved without changes, it would have increased taxes by approximately 5.5 mills, Smith said at an earlier meeting. The 2024 mill rate is $19.40.
On Monday night Smith said he did not know what the new mill rate would be if the Board of Budget Review’s budgetary changes are accepted by the town council.
The Town Council will review the proposed budget at 6 p.m. Thursday night, Dec. 19. The budget public hearing is slated for 6 p.m. Jan. 6, 2025.
