FORT KENT, Maine — About 40 residents approved a $6.96 million budget during Fort Kent’s annual town meeting last week.
This number, which includes the municipal budget and estimated totals for school and county taxes offset by $2.63 million in revenues, represents a slight increase over last year’s total estimated tax commitment of $6.6 million approved during the 2024 town meeting.
Because the school and county budgets are not yet complete, Fort Kent Town Manager Suzie Paradis said these numbers are only estimated totals.
The total for just the school, county and other agencies is roughly $5 million, according to Paradis.
Paradis said this total is higher than the total municipal budget for the year, which is $4.5 million. The municipal budget saw a $263,063 increase over last year’s town budget of $4.3 million.
Town revenues also saw a slight increase, with the town getting about $27,000 more than last year’s total of $2.6 million.
Paradis said that while no one department saw significant increases, there were some necessary increases across the board. Health insurance, for example, increased by nine percent. Paradis said the town recently lost its attorney and is now budgeting a little more to go out of town for legal services.
COLA (cost-of-living adjustment) increases for non-union town employees were 2.5 percent. Paradis said that union increases depend on the contract and department, but range between 50 cents and a dollar per hour annually.
“We did our best to keep the budget as close to last year’s as possible,” Paradis said. “But there are always a few areas that we have to increase.”
This was also the case last year, when municipal increases were primarily due to fixed costs like labor contracts and insurance.
Residents also elected officials to the Town Council and school board. The election was held at the town office from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on March 24. The town meeting was then held later that day at 6:30 pm at the Fort Kent Community High School.
The council race was not contested. Incumbent Carroll Theriault ran alongside Christan Thorsnes, who was running to fill the seat of outgoing councilor Jacob Robichaud, who did not seek re-election. Both were elected, with Theriault receiving 57 votes and Thorsnes receiving 35 votes. For the school board, Tanya Voisine and Donna Pelletier were both elected. Voisine’s was the only name on the ballot. She received 50 votes and Pelletier received five write-in votes.
The town will not be able to set its mill rate until local school and county budgets are completed. Fort Kent set its mill rate last year to 22.96 during a July 22 meeting.
