MECHANIC FALLS – Town Manager Dana Lee said he anticipates the tax rate will drop this year, but he won’t know how much until he meets with the assessor.
The recently completed property valuation is the reason for the decline, along with a school budget that will not increase and a town budget that is $4,229 less than last year.
Lee is preparing for the annual town meeting Tuesday, May 17. He said he anticipates the tax rate to drop from its current $29.20.
“From a tax standpoint, this is the best year we’ve seen in many years,” Lee said.
The Town Council reduced Lee’s preliminary budget by about $25,000 to get it to $4,229 below the amount approved last year.
Total appropriations at the 2004 town meeting were $1.61 million. This year, proposed appropriations are $1.67 million. While it is up $63,000 from last year, fees and other non-property-tax revenues have increased considerably, Lee said. Therefore, a $63,000 increase in spending is offset enough to drop the tax rate.
Property owners will receive preliminary valuations of their properties in a mailing late this month.
While some tax bills will increase, others will go down and some will remain at the same level as last year.
“It isn’t universal that your taxes will go down,” Lee said.
“People should have seen a substantial tax decrease, but the governor and his crew in the capital decided to do what they wanted to anyway. I hope I get a chance to speak to that. That’s really troubling to me,” he said, referring to the state’s failing to fund 55 percent of the cost of education.
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