BETHEL – Residents voted Wednesday night at their annual town meeting to approve the town’s slightly higher budget for 2006 and not use any surplus to lower taxes.
The total spending package this year is $2,585,369, or $120,523 more than this year.
Town Manager Scott Cole explained this week that employee wages, solid waste management and debt for the new fire station account for more than $100,000 of the increase.
All 33 budgetary articles were approved by the nearly 150 residents in the auditorium at Crescent Park School. Selectmen, including newcomer Dennis Doyon and the returning Jack Cross, sat at a long table at the front of the room. Standing at a podium to their right was town moderator Bill Cousins.
The only article that was amended was Article 30, which raised and appropriated $110,000 for revaluation of taxable properties for fiscal year 2006.
Assessor Robert Blake asked that the article be amended so the town can hire the assessing firm of William E. Van Tuinen of Madison.
Blake said the software package that Van Tuinen utilizes is more user-friendly than others and is more commonly used by other towns in Maine. Blake’s amendment was approved 72-40.
In addition, residents approved Article 6 by secret ballot. That raises the state-imposed property tax levy limit of $1,422,243 by $87,314.
Of the budgetary articles, Article 5, on using money from the town’s undesignated fund balance to reduce the property tax commitment, generated the most discussion Wednesday night.
Despite recommendations on the warrant by the Board of Selectmen and Budget Committee that no money be appropriated from the balance, several residents asked why $300,000 could not be used to alleviate the tax burden.
Town Manager Scott Cole said the fund balance is the town’s “closeout amount” at the end of a fiscal year, and that $350,000 to $400,000 represents a “good faith estimate” of what will be in this year’s balance at the beginning of fiscal year 2006. He said his estimate for this year was well below the town’s auditor’s recommendation.
The auditor, Cole said, recommends that 15 percent of the town’s total outlay, or about $750,000, be kept in the balance at all times to cover unanticipated expenses.
The town appropriated $400,000 from the designated fund balance last year, one resident said, which caused the town to go into a “short-term borrowing situation.”
Cole said it was true that the town borrowed last year because it withdrew funds from the balance. He added that the interest on the short-term loan from KeyBank was roughly $6,000.
One resident pointed out that with $350,000 left over, it wouldn’t hurt to take $300,000 out to lower the tax burden. Why, she asked, did selectmen and Budget Committee members recommend no money in the article.
Selectmen Reggie Brown said that when he was first elected years ago there was a lot more money on hand to consider using against the tax commitment while having enough to pay off unanticipated expenditures. Now there’s not as much money, Brown said, and “it doesn’t seem right to be paying all that interest on borrowed money.”
In the end, the town against using any of the undesignated fund balance to lower taxes.
Articles 34 to 43 had yet to be discussed late Wednesday night.
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