LEWISTON – No new road work and no new hires for the rest of the year. A request for $900,000 in cuts to local schools.

That is the city’s response to a petition aimed at killing a new storm-water utility fee.

The city faces losing $1.8 million this year, City Administrator Jim Bennett said Wednesday. The loss would have to be made up in service cuts or supplemental property taxes.

“And anybody that doesn’t think this is going to impact them, they’re out of their mind,” he said.

A group succeeded Wednesday in starting a petition drive aimed at suspending the utility fee. They would need to collect 1,000 signatures by Jan. 12 to get the issue on the November 2007 ballot. The fee would be suspended until after that vote.

Bennett responded by instituting a hiring freeze at the city level and suspending capital improvement projects. He sent a memo to city employees Wednesday calling for immediate money savings and said he will ask for $900,000 in budget cuts at Lewiston schools.

It’s sound management, not a scare tactic, he said.

“If I wait until January to start thinking about cuts, I’ll have no budget left to cut,” Bennett said. “It would be irresponsible of me not to make this an issue today, while we still have time to react.”

Backers of the petition drive argue that the City Council did not give the public enough chance to weigh in on the fee. Creating a new fee deserves a vote of the people, said David Hughes, one of the leaders of the petition drive.

“It’s a tax, to the people I’ve talked to,” Hughes said. “They’ve called it a fee, but it looks like a tax, and people are fed up with new taxes. They deserve a chance to vote on it.”

City Councilor Norm Rousseau blasted Hughes’ petition drive, calling it a cynical political ploy. Hughes, a Republican, is seeking the Maine House of Representatives seat in Lewiston’s District 72.

“If they really cared about Lewiston voters, they would have challenged this long ago, when the council was talking about it,” said Rousseau. “But now, when they think they can get votes out of it, they bring it up.”

Councilors began talks about the storm-water utility in February during their annual budget discussions. They adopted it in June, and settled on the final details in September.

It’s designed to pay for maintenance of the city’s system of canals, culverts and storm drains, as well as regular street sweeping and work creating a separate storm-sewer system.

The city charges an annual flat fee of $30 for the first 2,900 square feet of water-impervious surface. That is the extent of the fee for most single-family homes. Duplexes and two-unit residences pay $45 a year. Larger properties with more flat spaces pay more, at a rate of 4.4 cents per square foot per year.

Councilors reduced property tax collections by $1.6 million in June, and created the fee to replace that revenue. Bennett said those cuts amount to about $1 on the city’s tax rate – a savings of about $100 for the average homeowner.

But that’s unfair to businesses, nonprofits and downtown apartment dwellers, Hughes said. “I feel for the homeowners. I really do. But you can’t just shift the tax burden onto other groups.”

According to city ordinances, 10 registered voters can begin a petition drive to repeal a City Council decision. The petition stays on file in the City Clerk’s office. Backers have 60 businesses days – three months total – to get 1,000 registered Lewiston voters to come into City Hall and sign the petition.

Jay Taylor, one of the first 10 to sign the petition, gathers signatures professionally for other such efforts. In this case, though, he plans to volunteer his time to stand in front of City Hall, convincing people to come upstairs and sign the petition.

“They’re going to be sick of seeing me by the time this is all over,” Taylor said.