PARIS – The Budget Committee got its first look Thursday at a municipal budget with a 6.5 percent increase over last year’s spending.

The impact, if cutbacks are not made, would be felt particularly in light of the townwide revaluation that will be completed this summer. Town Manager Steve McAllister estimates the town’s valuation will jump 52 percent, from $143 million to $217 million.

“We have some properties that are going to increase from 200 to 400 percent in value,” he said. Most will increase in valuation by between 20 and 30 percent, with some decrease in valuations. The changes are dramatic because it has been more than a decade since the last townwide valuation, and some properties have been quite significantly underassessed, McAllister said.

The revaluation, combined with increased town spending, declining revenues and a 2.9 percent increase in school and county budget spending, are going to challenge taxpayers in Paris, no question, McAllister said.

School spending comprises nearly 69 percent of the total tax liability in Paris, he said in his budget message. The $2.68 million municipal budget, when added to county spending and a $2.46 million local assessment from SAD 17, results in an overall budget increase of 4.8 percent.

McAllister emphasized that under the revaluation, the tax rate will drop from $22.73 per $1,000 to around $16.50 per $1,000. A property assessed today at $100,000 under the current tax rate would pay $2,273.12 in taxes. A property assessed in the 2005 tax year at $125,000 at $16.50 per thousand, would pay $2,063.02 in taxes, a $210.10 difference, he said.

The increase in this year’s municipal budget is largely due to health care costs, higher costs in the Fire Department operational expenses, and the cost of a new full-time assessor, McAllister said.

The assessor’s position pays $39,000 currently, and he, like other town employees, is scheduled to receive 3 percent cost-of-living raise. The account for administrative services is proposed to rise by 25 percent, from $293,309 to $368,123.

McAllister said last year’s budget, which had a zero increase, was “really bare bones.” It also represented the first year the town was paying $165,000 a year for debt service on the fire station and the Route 26 sewer and water line extension.

That debt service amount will continue for 20 years – and there isn’t as much surplus to draw from as there once was, he said.

In fiscal year 2001-02, the town used $455,000 in undesignated funds. Last year it used $398,000, and this year the proposed amount is $300,000. Otherwise, revenues from such sources as state aid to roads, excise taxes, state revenue sharing and tree growth remain about the same. Personal property taxes are expected to rise from $3.25 million to $3.58 million, a 10.2 percent increase.

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