Councilor Joe DeFilipp said the city has more to fear from a looming tax cap.

AUBURN – A proposed school department tax increase doesn’t make the grade, councilors said Monday.

Maine’s tax climate makes calling for a dollar increase in taxes foolish, said Councilor Joe DeFilipp. He and other councilors urged the school committee to trim the proposed $1.4 million increase.

DeFilipp also said he backed cutting a $400,000 increase from the city’s budget. That would lower the anticipated increase property taxes to about 35 cents for each $1,000 of value.

“I don’t think we can raise the tax rate this year, at all,” DeFilipp said. “Whether that means spending cuts, other revenues or staff layoffs, I think we have to show our taxpayers the city of Auburn understands.”

City Manager Pat Finnigan unveiled her proposed fiscal year 2004-05 budget, calling for a total budget increase of $1.84 million for both city and schools. State money is down, interest earnings are down and the school committee is seeking its increase.

DeFilipp said the city has more to fear from a looming tax cap. Maine voters will decide on that in November, and municipal governments all across the state must prove they can be responsible with their budgets in the mean time.

“We are faced with a political situation that is mushrooming, and increasing taxes now could lead to a decision we all would find unacceptable,” he said.

Councilor Richard Livingston agreed, calling the school’s budget irresponsible and politically motivated. School officials increased their budget last year by finding other revenues.

“This year, those revenues are not there, so they’ll be willing to let it fall on us to pay for it,” Livingston said. “That is just unacceptable.”

Running skinny

Other city departments are looking at decreases or minimal increases, according to the proposed budget. Finnigan’s administrative budget would come down by $250, planning, health and social services and the parks and recreation budgets would come down $52,000.

Police and fire budgets would increase by $75,736 and $50,000, respectively, and intergovernmental items – including the airport, county taxes and Auburn’s support for the Twin Cities bus system – would increase $6,151.

“We’ve really been running skinny since last year,” she said. “There really is no one place were we can make a cut and make a big difference. The easy savings, we found those years ago.”

The national economy and low interest rates have been a double-edged sword, Finnigan said. They’ve cost the city an estimated $600,000 of the last two years in potential revenues.

However, they’ve allowed the city to refinance the Mid-Maine Waste Action Corp. debt and retire other bonds. That’s given the city a net decrease in the debt service budget of $174,303 in the coming fiscal year. That includes debt payments for Auburn Hall construction, the new Auburn Public Library and the Great Falls Plaza and Mechanics Row parking garages.

“Last year, we hit a peak for debt service,” Finnigan said. “But from now on, we should see our debt service budget go down each year, and that includes new capital improvement bonds each year.”

Councilors are scheduled to continue budget discussions next Monday.

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