Last year, councilors voted to raise the tax rate and cut $780,000 from the budget.
AUBURN – City and school officials agree that 2004 will be a difficult budget year.
“I think, walking into this year’s budget, I feel worse than I’ve ever felt,” said school Superintendent Barbara Eretzian.
State and federal educational mandates coupled with possibly shrinking state aid threaten to make the school budget tough, she said.
Eretzian and the School Committee discussed their budgets in a Monday night work session.
Meanwhile, Auburn City Manager Pat Finnigan pointed out that the city’s revenue resources are limited. Almost 65 percent of the city’s revenues come from property taxes.
“I hope this gets you thinking about our costs, because our costs are going up,” Finnigan said. “If our costs increase, we have to raise revenues and that means we need more tax money. There are two ways to do that – you either get more investment in the city or you raise the tax rate.”
Last year, councilors voted to raise the tax rate by 94 cents and cut $780,000 from the budget.
Both groups are scheduled to begin their fiscal year 2004-05 budget reviews. Eretzian and the School Committee are scheduled to adopt their budget by April 28, she said. Finnigan and the City Council are scheduled to adopt the city’s budget in June.
The national No Child Left Behind Act topped Eretzian’s list of budget unknowns, along with state educational mandates.
The list of state and federal requirements are increasing and taking up more and more of the budget.
“When we present the budget, we’ll present a long list of things people are used to having against a list of things we have to do,” she said. “That’s what we’re going to have to show them.”
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