By Scott Taylor,Staff Writer

AUBURN – A question of $70,000 for two teachers kept the City Council split on a $61.5 million budget Monday night.

Now councilors are under the gun to reach a budget deal before the end of the month. City Manager Pat Finnigan’s original budget, which calls for $2.6 million more in property taxes, becomes the law according to the city charter if they can’t.

“I don’t think that’s acceptable to anyone,” Mayor Normand Guay said. “Based on the feedback we’ve all gotten, we want taxes to go down.”

Councilors will meet today at 6:30 p.m to see if they can reach a deal. They’ve scheduled an emergency meeting for June 13 to vote on the first reading of the budget. A second reading is scheduled for June 20.

Councilors began Monday where they left the budget last week, with a $1.8 million property tax increase. That would have set the city’s tax rate at about $19.81 per $1,000 of value and increased the tax bill on a home assessed at $155,000 in 2006 by $137.

But Councilors Belinda Gerry and Donna Lyons Rowell said they wanted to bring back two teachers cut from the budget last month.

Councilors Bob Mennealy and Eric Samson agreed, and the four amended the budget, adding about $70,000 to the bottom line.

That would set the tax rate at $19.85 and increase the tax bill at $143 on a $155,000 home.

Budget votes need a five-vote majority, and they didn’t have it. Councilors Kelly Matzen, Robert Hayes and Bethel Shields didn’t like the amendment.

“I’m troubled with that much of an increase,” Hayes said.

“I’m troubled by the process, how we reached this point,” Matzen said. Councilors had the chance to change the budget before Monday’s meeting.

Even Samson, who supported the amendment, said he couldn’t support the budget in its final form.

“It’s too high,” Samson said. He voted against the budget on first reading, saying he supported adding teachers back in the budget as a matter of fairness. He’d be happier with a much smaller budget, however.

Public speaks

Councilors heard similar complaints from the public before their vote. Several spoke, saying the council was spending too much and needed to cut spending mercilessly.

“You need to slash and burn this budget,” said James Williams of 58 Olive St. Williams urged them to cut all police officers from the schools, drop school computers and have police drive less.

Others urged more school spending, saying fewer teachers means larger classes and a bad learning environment.

“Do you know what? The complexion of our schools has changed,” said teacher Candy Gleason of 583 Hotel Road. Gleason, a teacher at Edward Little High School, said schools need help.

“I do understand the needs of people on a fixed income, but I’m encouraging you to compromise,” she said.