AUBURN – A potential property tax rebate for city homeowners could be on the horizon.

Councilors will talk Monday about creating a program similar to the state’s circuit breaker tax refund program. That gives lower income homeowners a rebate based on how much they have paid in property taxes.

The topic is on the council’s workshop agenda, which begins at 5:30 p.m. The council’s regular meeting follows at 7 p.m.

Legislation passed in 2005 allows cities and towns to create tax rebates of their own.

“What we’re doing is presenting the outline of what we can do to the councilors, and then discussing where we want to go,” said Laurie Smith, acting city manager. “Then we can discuss how it impacts homeowners and what it would mean to individual tax bills.”

The state program offers tax relief based on the percentage of a taxpayer’s income in comparison to the amount of property tax or rent they pay annually. They can receive up to $2,000 in rebates. The state paid out 2,159 rebates to Auburn residents in 2006 under the program.

Auburn’s program would be similar. The city would collect property taxes as usual, putting a share of the revenues aside. Property taxpayers would be allowed to apply to receive a share of that revenue based on their income and the amount of taxes they’ve paid.

The result would be higher taxes across the city at first for both homeowners and businesses. Homeowners would see a break later on, however.

“That’s basically what our program would have to look like, although the City Council would decide the actual numbers,” Smith said. “We need to discuss it, if just to gauge whether or not councilors want to move forward.”

City Assessor Cheryl Dubois said York and Cumberland have both created similar rebate programs. Yarmouth has had similar program in the past but does not do it now. Dubois was the Yarmouth tax assessor until 2004 when she took over the Auburn assessing department.