AUBURN – City-controlled recycling operations could save about $100,000 per year, councilors learned Tuesday.

Councilors continued hunting for ways to trim $407,000 from the municipal budget Tuesday, going over the public works department’s proposed $4.59 million in spending.

The city hired Pine Tree Waste to take care of city trash and recycling collections several years ago. This year, Pine Tree bid $663,000 for five-years worth of recycling collections, said Sid Hazelton, assistant public works director.

The city can do that job using existing public works staff for about $12,500 per year, plus capital purchases to buy three new recycling trucks.

City Manager Pat Finnigan said that assumption is built into her fiscal year 2004-05 budget assumptions.

“That’s what we’ll do, unless councilors decide otherwise,” Finnigan said. “It’s a big savings, which is why I think it’s important we do this.”

But Councilor Marcel Bilodeau said he was unsure.

“You’ll have a hard time convincing me that we can do something like this less expensively than a private company,” Bilodeau said.

At issue is the fiscal year 2004-05 budget that would demand a $1.84 million increase in property taxes. An increase like that would add $1.36 to the city’s property tax rate, increasing it to $30.74 for each $1,000 of property value.

Councilors have vowed to keep the property tax rate from going up. That would mean $1.4 million in school cuts and $407,000 in city cuts.

The City Council will continue reviewing the budget at 5:15 p.m. Thursday, when it is scheduled to meet with officials from the Auburn Public Library.

[email protected]