By Scott Taylor,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – A city plan calls for spending about $1.2 million from fiscal year 2006-07 taxes on roads, equipment and city projects.

The city is four years into a six-year plan to buy more capital items out of the regular budget, not from bonds and debt and not from the city’s rainy day fund balances, according to City Administrator Jim Bennett.

He outlined his proposed $24 million in spending for capital projects to councilors Tuesday night.

The capital plan is the first part in the city’s annual budget process. Bennett will present his proposed budget to the council in March, and they’ll combine the two to create the city’s spending plan for the coming year.

The city’s project list this year calls for $925,000 in economic development projects, $838,000 in spending at the Bates Mill Enterprise Complex for operating costs and infrastructure work, $500,000 to upgrade Kennedy Park, $1.3 million in improvements to school buildings and more than $4 million in spending on road paving, repair and highway projects.

Bennett’s plan calls for spending about $1.2 million in new general fund taxes and about $400,000 in surplus money. City borrowing – about $1.4 million for schools, $5.7 million for water and sewer, $567,000 at the Colisee and $8.6 million for the city’s general bond issue – accounts for about 66 percent of the capital projects budget. Most of the rest would come from federal and state money and from shared expenses with Auburn.

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