By Natalie De La Garza
Staff Writer
CARIBOU, Maine — Budget season is well under way in Caribou, with city officials looking at an overall $9,749,209 in proposed expenditures for 2014, up from last year’s allocated $8,684,251. On Oct. 16 and 21, Caribou city councilors met with department heads to hear proposed budgets for each department. Per Caribou’s city charter, the annual budget is divided into three different parts — expense budget, capital expense budget, and income budget — and currently, council is exclusively working on the expense budget and capital expense budget; the estimated income budget is not required to be provided before Feb. 15, 2014. Though city officials anticipated requiring three meetings to get through the proposed budget, all departments we wrapped up by Monday night; councilors decided to keep tonight’s meeting and change it, instead, to a budget workshop.
“Since we finished it up tonight, Wednesday night will be a council workshop,” Mayor Gary Aiken said at the conclusion of the Monday night meeting. “So everyone has a few days to think about this and get ready for the discussion, we’re going to decide how we’re going to handle the budget process this year. We went back and forth a few times last year and changed things around,” he added, “so this year council will decide up front how we’re going to handle it, what we’re going to look for, and go from there.”
“As I said earlier,” Aiken added before the meeting adjourned, “there’s a 2.8-mil increase the way it exists right now, so there probably is some work to be done yet before we’ve finished up with this.”
A detailed copy of the proposed budget, including a breakdown by departments, can be found by clicking on the “Budgets” tab at cariboumaine.org.
Proposed expenditures for 2014 are:
• General Government: proposed $673,384 for the 2014, up from $658,864 approved in 2013;
• Health and Sanitation: proposed $269,248 for the 2014, up from $263,978 approved in 2013;
• Municipal Buildings: proposed $67,985 for 2014, down from $68,920 approved in 2013;
• General Assistance: proposed $101,229 for 2014, up from $95,898 in 2013;
• Tax Assessment: proposed $159,768 for 2014, up from $146,163 in 2013;
• Code Enforcement: proposed $41,893 in 2014, up from $40,525 in 2013;
• Library: proposed $226,699 in 2014, down from $239,475 in 2013;
• Nylander Museum: no funds allocated for 2014; facility was budged $16,604 in 2013;
• Fire Department: proposed $560,160 in 2014, up from $457,883 in 2013;
• Ambulance: proposed $1,840,273 for 2014, up from $1,639,826 in 2013;
• Police Department: proposed $1,281,764 for 2014, up from $1,199,959 in 2013;
• Protection: proposed $410,033 for 2014, up from $397,091 in 2013;
• Emergency Management: proposed $17,483 for 2014, up from $15,194 in 2013;
• Public Works: proposed $2,151,976 in 2014, up from $1,883,912 in 2013;
• Recreation: proposed $421,457 for 2014, down from $427,413 in 2013;
• Parks: proposed $153,415, up from $132,242 in 2013;
• Airport: proposed $33,975 in 2014, up slightly from $33,939 in 2013;
• Trailer Park: proposed $12,457 in 2014, down from $12,479 in 2013;
• Cemeteries: proposed $6,900 in 2014, same as last year;
• Insurance and Retirement: proposed $488,575, up from $452,435 in 2013;
• Contributions: proposed $7,253, same as last year;
• Unclassified: proposed $66,000, up from $56,000 in 2013; and
• Capital Improvement Accounts: proposed $757,313 for 2014, up from $431,298 in 2013.
Tonight’s budget workshop will be held at 6 p.m. in the council chambers.
