LEWISTON – Lewiston’s tax-cap group will come out with two budgets when its members complete their work – one that outlines a 69 percent cut in city services and another that calls for $15 million in new fees.

“The truth will probably be somewhere in between that,” member Robert Reed said at Tuesday’s meeting of the group at City Hall.

At the meeting, City Administrator Jim Bennett came under fire for some of the fees he presented last week. Those included an annual fee for fire service, a per-foot fee for road frontage, a pay-per-bag trash collection program, apartment inspection fees, and increased fees for recreation and the library.

Those allowed Bennett to restore all but 10 percent of the city’s post-tax-cap budget. But committee member Ron Comeau said he doubted many of the fees could be levied.

“I don’t think it passes the straight-face test,” Comeau said. He said he’d prefer seeing more schemes for making the city run efficiently.

“It feels dirty, like we’re circumventing the law,” member Robert Reed said.

City Councilor Renee Bernier agreed, saying she especially disliked a proposed $3.75 per foot road frontage fee. Money from that fee would support the city’s public works department.

“We are pushing the limits with some of these fees – I’ll be the first to admit it,” Bennett said. Most of the fees would probably be challenged in the courts, if voters approve the tax cap.

“But what I’ve had in mind all along is presenting everything to the public,” Bennett said. “There are too many variables in this law to say exactly what the conditions will be. We’re trying to give our best, realistic look at what our options.”

Bennett also outlined a list of state law changes the city would need to survive should the tax cap get voter approval in November. Those include tax-cap specific requests like allowing Maine cities more than 10 mils of property taxes to pay debt and letting the cities issue liens for unpaid user fees.

“It doesn’t do much good to have fees if you can’t collect them,” Bennett said.

The committee said they’d recommend that the state Legislature consider making some changes even if the voters turn down the tax cap. Those include requiring nonprofits to pay something for municipal services, changing education funding plans, giving cities some revenues from speeding tickets and other criminal fines, and increasing charges for motor vehicle registrations at City Hall. Maine cities would be allowed to keep more of those charges, Bennett said.

City Administrator Jim Bennett will wrap up most of the group’s findings on a post-tax-cap budget in a report due to the public on Oct. 8. The group will go over his report on Oct. 12 and hold a public hearing on the matter on Oct. 19.

The tax-cap question goes to voters on Nov. 2.