HOULTON, Maine — Citing a need to keep taxes from rising, members of the Houlton Town Council will revisit the 2014 budget next Monday to see if any additional cuts can be made.
Councilors came to that conclusion Monday evening when a proposal was presented to the group to cover $83,452 of the 2014 municipal budget by using TIF (Tax Increment Finance) reserve funds to pay for several line items. The shift in spending came about when the council learned a few months ago that it could use funds in the town’s TIF accounts for expenses which fall under economic development.
Included in the plan is to fund such line items as the Chamber of Commerce, NMDC (Northern Maine Development Commission) and consultants/economic development (which includes the Southern Aroostook Development Corporation) with TIF funds. A portion of what the town pays for the rest area could also come from these funds since the Tourist Information Center is viewed as a source of economic development.
Council Chairman Paul Cleary said the town needed to come up with savings of $138,000 if it wanted to avoid a tax increase. After using the $83,452 from the TIF account, combined with the savings brought about by recent cuts to the RSU 29 school budget, the town should be able to avoid any tax increase. However, it would also mean the town would have no overlay (surplus) in the 2014 budget to carry over for the following year.
“I think when voters turned down the school budget, they basically sent a message to us as a council, as well as the school board, that we need to watch what we are doing in our budget,” Cleary said. “I feel there are some things we, as a council, can cut a little bit more.”
Councilor John White, who was opposed to the 2014 budget, agreed that the group should revisit its spending plan to see if there were any other areas that could be trimmed.
In order to use the TIF funds to pay for some items in the budget, the council must drop the amount raised by tax dollars for these lines items to zero, which raised a concern with councilor Rob Hannigan. Hannigan said he feared if the council dropped funding for the Chamber of Commerce to zero on paper in the 2014 budget, those funds might not get put back once the TIF money runs out.
Cleary said just because the funds were set to zero one year did not mean the town was not supporting any of those economic development groups.
“We’re just changing and funding them in a different way,” he said.
A special council workshop will be held Monday, June 30 at 7 p.m. in the council chambers to see if there are any other areas of the budget that can be trimmed to avoid any increase to the town’s tax rate. Cleary encouraged his fellow councilors to submit their cost-saving ideas to the town clerk before that meeting.
Later in the meeting, several councilors chastised the RSU 29 board for its handling of the school budget, which failed at the polls. Residents will vote a new, reduced budget Thursday at the RSU 29 district budget meeting. Councilor Sue Tortello explained how the school board had trimmed about $150,000 from its budget, eliminating the need for the “additional local” tax dollars.
“How is it that a budget gets presented and is voted down and then in a matter of no time you can delete $150,000 without second thought,” Cleary asked.
He added he did not like the way the school district was using the budget failing as the excuse for having to send sixth-graders to Houlton High School and third-graders to Houlton Southside School this fall.
“All of this is because of their lack of planning for what to do when they closed (Wellington Elementary) school,” he said. “Do they mention any of this stuff Sue when you attend their meetings? It’s wrong to send a message to the voters that ‘It’s your fault.’ That is not the way to do things.”
Tortello, who is the only councilor who regularly attends RSU 29 board meetings and has been at most of the budget sessions for the school, said she could not answer those questions.
“At least they (the school board) didn’t do what they did last time,” councilor White said. “Last time, they said ‘No this is a good budget and sent the same budget out (to voters). At least they did something, but they could do more.”
Several councilors stated that the school district did not have to accept the full amount of funding from the state and instead should only be spending as much money as was needed.
“The way I look at it, I have credit cards to get rewards (points),” White said. “Do I want to max my cards and spend, spend, spend to get those rewards? No, I spend what I need.”
In other agenda items, the council:
• Authorized a three-year lease for a 2014-15 Toyota Camry from Yorks of Houlton for $311 per month. The lease replaces a similar leased vehicle used at the town office. The vehicle is used for administrative purposes instead of paying for mileage.
• Approved victualer licenses for the County Co-op and Farm Store located at 53 Main St. and to Samantha Robinson, doing business as The Bus on Broadway Street. Councilors also renewed a liquor license for Taste of China.
• Granted an easement to Emera for a piece of property the town of Houlton owns in Monticello to run transmission lines.
The next regular council meeting is scheduled for Monday, July 14, at 6 p.m. in the council chambers. A special workshop will be held Monday, June 30, at 7 p.m. also in the council chambers.
