By Scott Taylor,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – The city faces a bevy of program cuts and accounting moves to counteract rising costs, City Administrator Jim Bennett said Tuesday.

His proposed 2006-07 budget calls for a 4.1 percent increase in spending and $1.37 million more in property taxes.

Those increases are offset by new commercial growth – bringing in $1.36 million in new property taxes – and cuts.

Budget talks continue at 6 p.m. Thursday with a question-and-answer session for councilors with Bennett and Finance Director Dick Metivier. Councilors have until May 31 to adopt a budget.

The big concern for most taxpayers will be the citywide property revaluation, Bennett said. That will increase the city’s assessed value by 60 percent, from $1.4 billion to $2.3 billion.

The city will start mailing notices to property owners on May 5. Half of all taxpayers’ bills will stay roughly the same. A quarter will get tax decreases because of the revaluation. A quarter will see taxes increase – some, as much as 36 percent.

“There is going to be a tendency to want to fix this for those people,” Bennett said. “The only way to do that, council, is to cut taxes across the city by 36 percent. And keep in mind, 75 percent of the tax bills will stay the same or go down already.”

Property values are the only factor that will change property tax bills this year, he said.

“The magic number for homeowners here is 60 percent,” Bennett said. “If your home does not increase in value, under the revaluation, by 60 percent, your taxes will go down. If your home’s value goes up by more than 60 percent, your taxes will increase.”

Budget cuts

Cuts have been hard to come by, Bennett said. He can’t do a thing about $2.7 million of new expenses. Those include debt service at the Colisee, pensions, wages and insurance, costs for keeping Bates Mill No. 5 and general assistance.

The city would move non-school programs out of the Multi-Purpose Center, turning the remaining space over to the Longley School. Bennett said the school would lease that space, instead of purchasing new temporary buildings and pay the city $201,389 per year.

All recreation programs, senior citizen programs and other non-school related programs would relocate to the Lewiston Armory on Central Avenue.

Bennett said the city would also cease paying $6,500 per year for youth recreation programs, like youth hockey and little league.

The budget also eliminates two recreation department custodians and the position for the city’s parochial school nurse. She retires this year, and Bennett said they won’t replace the position – a $34,000 savings.

The city will also squeeze more costs out of trash collections. Apartments with more than two units would pay for trash collections. Currently, apartments with three units or fewer don’t pay.

The city would restructure the fee program as well, charging $150 per year for each unit. The city currently charges $1.55 per week, per unit. That’s about $80 per year.

The free punch pass program would also go away. Resident landowners would pay $10 for their first pass, letting them take about 15 pickup loads of trash to the landfill. Passes would cost $30 after that.

Landowners who don’t live in Lewiston and renters wouldn’t get the passes.

“As other communities have eliminated spring cleanup, we’ve seen the amount of trash being brought to our landfill increase,” Bennett said. “I think it’s obvious, landlords are bringing it here and this addresses that problem.”

Bennett also hopes to sign a deal with Waste Systems, letting it manage the landfill for the next four years. Under that deal, Waste Systems would not be allowed to bring any household trash from outside Lewiston. It would be allowed to bring ash and commercial waste from out of state, however.

That would save the city $1.1 million per year, he said.

Storm water utility

Bennett said councilors can trim $1.6 million spending by creating a Storm Water Utility. That would charge landowners a fee based on how much asphalt area they have. Residential owners would pay a flat $30 per year. But big nonprofits such as Bates College or the local hospitals could pay up to $275,000. Those nonprofits don’t pay property taxes currently.