RUMFORD – Town Manager Robert Welch believes selectmen have approved a pretty prudent budget for the next fiscal year.

If it goes through the Finance Committee’s scrutiny next week unchanged, voters at town meeting in June will vote on a $6,308,513 municipal budget, up about 1 percent, or just under $83,000, from last year’s operating budget.

Departmental budgets remained close to last year’s, Welch said.

All 64 municipal jobs would remain in place, and all nonunion employees would receive a 30-cent-an-hour raise. Contracts for the town’s unionized employees have not yet been settled.

“It’s a flat budget, like we’ve had for 10 or 11 years. But we can’t always keep it flat. We try to provide the same services at a reasonable rate,” Welch said.

The town’s current tax rate is $19 per $1,000 valuation.

The Finance Committee will review the municipal department budget requests at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday and the initiated articles, including one for $1.9 million for a new fire station, at 6:30 p.m. Friday.

Without the Fire Department request, this year’s initiated articles, which are generally money requests by social service agencies, total $372,000, up about 1 percent from last year’s approved figure.

If voters approve building a new fire station, it would be bonded over 20 years, boosting the tax rate by about 25 cents. That would work out to about $10 to $15 a year on homes valued at $50,000.

But the total tax liability is made up of more than the municipal budget and initiated articles. Also figured in will be the town’s share of the school and Oxford County taxes. Generally, Rumford taxpayers spend a little more than $13 million a year for all services. A lot depends on the valuation of MeadWestvaco Paper Division, too. Those figures aren’t ready until late summer.

Welch said the town’s share of the county tax is expected to be reduced by about $15,000 this year. The town’s share of the school tax won’t be known until June.
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