Council gets first look at budget

By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer
    HOULTON — After four nights of workshops, the Houlton Board of Budget Review ultimately endorsed a zero increase municipal budget, but failed to give town councilors any direction as to where the cuts should be made.
    By a vote of 4-3, the Board of Budget Review recommended setting the 2013 municipal budget at the 2012 level of $9,225,760. That amount, however, failed to take into consideration any of the increases projected for 2013, particularly in the area of contracted raises and benefits for employees, as well as an anticipated increase in the town’s share of the SAD 29 budget.
    The budget moved on to the Town Council for a recap Monday. Councilors, who have the authority to override any suggestions made by the Board of Budget Review, did not make any changes to the budget during Monday night’s meeting.
    The council recommended a $9,510,989 spending plan to be brought to a public hearing. That hearing will be held on Thursday, Jan. 3 at 6 p.m. in the council chambers.
    During Monday night’s meeting, attempts to reduce a couple of line items did not meet with the consensus of the group. Councilor John White attempted to eliminate funding for the town rest area. His request drew the support of councilors Phil Cloney and Dan Peabody, but councilors Sue Tortello, John Fitzpatrick, Rob Hannigan and Paul Cleary supported keeping the rest area at the recommended amount of $52,000.
    Councilor Tortello attempted to reduce the amount of funding for the American Red Cross to zero, stating she did not feel the money stayed locally. She also added no representative from the Red Cross has come before the group to request those funds. Peabody and White voted in favor of eliminating the funding, while Fitzpatrick, Hannigan, Cloney and Cleary voted to keep the requested amount of $3,500.
    Just because the Council put forth the $9.5 million budget does not mean additional cuts can’t be made, Cleary said in a phone interview Tuesday morning.
    “At the public hearing, anyone can stand up and go over any line item in the budget,” Cleary explained. “We simply had to put a number out there for people to discuss. Councilors will still have an opportunity to suggest cuts at the next meeting.”
Board of Budget Review meeting
    Earlier this month, Town Manager Eugene Conlogue presented the budget committee with a $9.5 million spending plan for 2013 — an increase of 3.1 percent ($285,229). The committee was tasked with going over each department, and asked to make suggestions on areas to trim or add.
    Those meetings were held over four nights.
    However, during its review of each department, no suggested cuts were recommended and all but one department passed as presented. The one department the committee could not agree on was the Millar Civic Center, which Conlogue proposed reducing by the elimination of a director position and creating a new supervisor position at a reduced salary.
    Several board members objected to the proposal of eliminating the director’s position at the Civic Center and expressed concerns that the town would not be able to find a qualified person for the $27,500 annual salary it was offering for the supervisor’s position. The town currently funds the director’s position at a yearly salary of $46,869.
    A motion to put the position back to the $46,869 level failed by a vote of 3-3. The Civic Center line was then given a “no recommendation” status.
    When it came time to vote on the budget in its entirety, that motion failed 2-4. A motion was then made to reduce the bottom line figure to last year’s amount, but gave no indications where reductions needed to be made to get to that dollar amount. That motion passed.
    Members of the budget committee, who are elected to that position, include Walter Goodrich, Dale Flewelling, Gerry Berthelette, Carl Lord Jr., Phil Bernaiche, Tony Delucca, Dorothy Donahue and Wade Hanson.
    Several board members expressed frustrations during the Dec. 12 meeting when no suggestions on where cuts needed to be made were presented. The following day, board chairman Goodrich and member Hanson resigned from the group. Their terms were not due to expire until 2014.