AUBURN – The Budget Committee unanimously rejected spending amendments from the County Commission totaling $75,860 Thursday, giving final approval to the $9.28 million county budget.
Taxpayers can expect an increase of 1.94 percent in taxes over last year. The amount to be raised by taxation is $6,628,952. Departmental expenses are $9,284,669, an increase of $11,142 over last year. Projected revenues are $2,655,717, a reduction of 4.14 percent.
On Jan. 18, the commission voted unanimously to reject the budget. The $75,860 in rejected amendments included several items related to law enforcement and nonprofit agencies.
State law requires a minimum two-thirds majority vote by the Budget Committee to override the commission when a budget is rejected. That action was unprecedented in Androscoggin County, prompting Budget Committee Chairman Paul Labrecque, a 19-year veteran of the committee, to call the commission’s rejection of the budget unfair.
“I’m very disappointed that the commission voted to veto the budget. They have put us in the position of taking the heat on the adjustments,” he said.
On Nov. 9, the Budget Committee rejected the entire budget and sent it back to the commission with instructions to whittle a proposed 15.8 percent tax increase to zero.
Before the call for no tax increase, three nonprofit organizations had been slated to receive the same level of funding as they did the previous two years. The commission cut the three agencies’ requests in half. The requests were: University of Maine Androscoggin-Sagadahoc Counties Cooperative Extension Service, $48,000; Time and Tide Resource Conservation and Development Area, $2,500; and Androscoggin Valley Soil & Water Conservation District, $14,000.
Following an emotional public hearing in December, the Budget Committee agreed to fund the three agencies at 50 percent with the possibility of restoring the remaining half in the spring. One of the amendments the commission approved Jan. 18, would have restored full funding to the three agencies. The vote by the committee Thursday night ends the possibility of that 50 percent being restored.
“The only reason we made those cuts,” said County Commissioner Patience Johnson, is because the Budget Committee wanted no increase in this year’s budget. She added that the commissioners told the committee that they felt some of the cuts were not reasonable.
“We were told by Paul Labrecque that his marching orders were to go back to a zero budget,” said Commission Chairman Elmer Berry, meaning one with no increase.
He said that with just seven months remaining until the 2006 budget process begins, the commission will look for creative ways to enhance revenues during the coming months. He said he wants to explore the possibility of charging Auburn, Lewiston and Lisbon for sheriff’s officers transporting prisoners to court. He also said he will discuss the possibility of making retroactive charges to the three communities in a future commission meeting.
Berry also questioned the legality of not approving the 2005 budget before the end of 2004, which he said is mandated by state statute.
Other spending amendments that failed before the budget committee Thursday included funding for reserve sheriff’s patrol shifts at the level of two per week, retention of the dive team, and overtime to replace deputies who are out sick.
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