AUBURN – It’s the budget year they dreaded.

After bailing themselves out last year – spending nearly $800,000 in savings to keep county tax bills low – Androscoggin County’s commissioners and budget committee members say they need to boost tax bills.

And the only thing keeping them from getting even bigger than the proposed 11.1 percent increase are proposed wage freezes, furloughs and layoffs.

“We are muddled,” said Daniel Blanchard, a budget committee member for more than a decade. “What do we do? How do we solve this?”

The proposal, crafted by the three-member County Commission, would boost county spending by a modest 3.49 percent, from $9.88 million in 2006 to $10.2 million in 2007.

However, the added taxes will be felt in all of the county’s 14 towns and cities.

In 2006, Auburn paid nearly $1.7 million in county taxes. If the tax formula remains unchanged, last year’s bill would likely rise by about $189,000.

In Lewiston, the increase is likely to be higher, City Administrator Jim Bennett said. He guessed that taxpayers in his city would see a jump of around $250,000.

The burden is more than just the bill, he said.

Two of the six targeted layoffs are transportation officers at the Androscoggin County Jail. Traditionally, the officers have taken inmates to and from their first appearances in court. Without them, towns would have to transport their own people.

After consulting with Police Chief William Welch, Bennett estimated the added transportation cost to the city at $135,000.

For the average Lewiston taxpayer, the added expenses could mean a tax bill that’s $31 or $32 higher, Bennett said.

Blanchard, a selectman in Mechanic Falls, said he too worries what more money would mean in his town.

This year, his town paid more than $128,000 in county taxes.

“People are being taxed out of their homes,” Blanchard said.

However, he worries that the drive to keep bills down may be cutting into safety. An Auburn police officer for 25 years, he said he’s not willing to sacrifice safety to cut costs.

“The commissioners say they have cut everything they could,” he said. “And I have to believe them.”

However, when the Sheriff’s Department and the jail budgets come up for discussion later this month – at budget meetings scheduled for Nov. 15 and 29 – he plans to listen carefully.

‘In the dark too long’

In a letter to commissioners, Sheriff Ron Gagnon has categorically opposed any cuts on the grounds that his staff of deputies is already too thin. His sentiments were echoed last week in a joint statement by Gagnon and the leader of the department’s labor union, David Trafford.

At any given time, there are only two deputies on patrol in the county. Meanwhile, rising populations in the jail have strained the ranks of corrections officers. There are more cases of violence and lawsuits than ever before, Jail Administrator John Lebel said.

Even without the layoffs, the Sheriff’s Department budget has no fat, say Lebel and other administrators.

Non-union workers throughout the county building would also be affected by the commissioners’ budget proposal. It would freeze the wages of county employees and ask them each to take five unpaid days off.

Commission Chairman Elmer Berry told the 11-member Budget Committee at a meeting Monday night that there are no new jobs and no large capital expenses in the proposed budget. Maintenance to county buildings is limited to “a few gallons of paint and some paint brushes,” Berry said.

Commissioner Patience Johnson said a full six weeks of work was spent crafting the proposal.

“We went over the budget line by line, making cuts and making cuts,” she said.

However, few people are satisfied.

During the initial Budget Committee meeting Monday, Lewiston member Renee Bernier asked commissioners to give the budget a final examination, in hopes of finding cuts that do not eliminate jobs such as the transportation officers or the Civil Division’s only full-time position, now held by Trafford.

Bernier and others questioned why Trafford’s office – which brings in revenue to the county – would be weakened by being replaced with part-time help with less legal training.

“It just doesn’t make sense to me,” she said.

The Budget Committee is scheduled to meet tonight to begin detailed budget talks with department heads. Meetings will continue on Nov. 8, 15, and 29. A public hearing and review is scheduled for Dec. 6. All meetings are scheduled for 6 p.m. in the Androscoggin County Courthouse.

Bernier, the Lewiston City Council president, hopes people will come and listen to the discussions.

“People need to start paying attention to county government,” she said. “It’s been done in the dark too long.”