Minot: $500,000 tax-cap cut possible

MINOT – The School Committee and Board of Selectmen accepted Town Administrator Gregory Gill’s budget analysis if a 1 percent tax cap is imposed. The result would be a $500,000 cut.

In order to develop a picture of what the impact on school and municipal programs would be under the Palesky tax-cap proposal, the two boards agreed to split the revenue shortfall.

Union 29 Financial Officer Stacie Everett was directed to prepare a budget $250,000 less than the current one, and Gill likewise was asked to show the effect of cutting that amount from municipal government.

Gill’s report noted that the tax-cap proposal allows a town to collect taxes amounting to 1 percent of property valuation, plus the amount of a town’s existing debt.

Thus, according to Gill’s figures, the town would be allowed to raise $1,565,434 through property taxes.

The fact that Minot has a relatively low tax rate – $14 per $1,000 – means Minot would not be affected as severely as many other area towns, school Superintendent Nina Schlikin pointed out.

“You are far better off than either Poland of Mechanic Falls. At Elm Street School, they are being asked to consider a $660,000 cut and you know that has to come out of personnel. School budgets are mostly salary costs. People and programs, that’s the only option you have,” Schlikin said.