LEWISTON – Edward Cunion wasn’t surprised to learn the city might have to increase property taxes next year.

“It’s just the way they seem to spend money,” he said. He cited the city’s involvement with the Colisee and the number of multifamily houses in the city, saying the pressure certainly seems to be on residential property taxpayers.

But Cunion, who lives at 16 Kensington St., didn’t realize his property tax bill had decreased over the past 10 years.

“I’m not against paying my share,” he said. “I just don’t want it wasted. So if the tax bills haven’t gone up, that is surprising.”

Cunion’s house was one of nine City Administrator Jim Bennett featured Tuesday night to demonstrate the city’s fiscal responsibility since 1997.

Bennett said decreases in state aid coupled with higher county taxes and transportation and insurance costs could force the city to make drastic cuts or raise taxes for the 2008 fiscal year. His draft budget shows a 6 percent spending increase, up $2.5 million compared to current spending. Taxes would go up 10.9 percent.

Councilors hadn’t started working on the budget yet and Bennett said he was confident they’ll find a way to trim some of that increase.

“They’ve worked very hard every year since I’ve been here to keep taxes down,” he said.

During his draft budget presentation, Bennett showed photographs of nine houses and the taxes the owners paid in 1997, in 2003 and this year. Each showed a decrease over 10 years, ranging from $155 at 16 Deforge St. to $306 at 30 Woodside Drive.

It didn’t come as a surprise to Rosemary Cunion, Edward’s wife. Bennett showed taxes on their property decreasing from $3,101 in 1997 to $2,871 this year – a drop of $230.

“Nobody likes to pay taxes at all, but we do understand we have to pay our share,” she said. “It does seem they’ve stayed pretty much the same over time, and that does seem fair.”

But another resident on Bennett’s list, who didn’t want to be identified, said the decreases were so small, she didn’t notice.

“I don’t call $20 a year much of a decrease, when the cost for everything else goes up,” she said. The woman said she was in the process of selling her house.

Random sampling

City Assessor Joe Grube gathered the information for Bennett’s presentation one day last month. Grube drove around different parts of the city, looking for houses that had not changed in 10 years, he said.

“The main criteria was, we didn’t want houses that had expansions or additions put on, or anything that would change their value,” he said.

He came back to his office with a list of 12 homes, and looked each up on the city’s tax rolls. Three of those homes were eliminated because they’d had work done. The remaining nine showed taxes had dropped.

“It’s actual information, from the actual taxes they paid,” Grube said.

Grube credits the state’s homestead exemption program for most of the savings. Started in 1998, the program exempts part of a property’s value from taxation.

“That’s responsible for most of the decrease,” Grube said. “But it shows some control at the city level. We actually passed those savings along to the taxpayer. That’s important to note.”

In fact, Bennett told councilors, the city leads the state in tax reform efforts. Lewiston has reduced its staff size and worked to cut health insurance and workers compensation claims while absorbing increases in education and storm-water management costs. The city’s past efforts to trim costs might make tax increases this year more difficult to skirt.

“We might just be victims of bad timing,” Bennett said.