LEWISTON – A combined Lewiston-Auburn would enjoy about $200,000 more in state money, according to an economic report.

Economist Charles Lawton told members of the Citizens Commission on Joint Lewiston Auburn Services that non-property tax revenues would shift very slightly if the two cities combined all operations.

He presented a report on revenue to commissioners at their meeting Thursday night in Lewiston City Hall.

“Taken alone, this revenue does not present a reason to consolidate services or not,” Lawton told the group. “You would be considering an estimated $60 million in intergovernmental revenues, and $200,000 is a small portion of that.”

A larger L-A would expect to get a larger portion of state revenue sharing, he said.

Lewiston receives about $4.9 million and Auburn $3.8 million now – about $8.7 million between the two.

Local revenue sharing dollars would increase to $9.2 million if they combined.

Revenues to the schools would go down by about $274,000, however. Auburn receives additional state aid because of its declining enrollment.

“But Auburn’s enrollment decline would be offset by an (enrollment) increase in Lewiston, so that $274,000 would go away,” he said. The result would be $205,000 in total state aid for a combined city.

“But I didn’t take any policy changes into account,” he said. “I only looked at revenues assuming the same conditions exist. I would expect greater savings by changing many conditions. There are potential savings from policy changes in the entire system.”

Joint Services Coordinator Steven Eldridge said he hopes to begin presenting some of possible policy changes to city departments next month. Teams of city staffers have created consolidation models and they’ll present them to department heads, Auburn Manager Laurie Smith and Lewiston Administrator Jim Bennett on Nov. 14.

“This will be our first opportunity to see how these models would really operate and get some feed back on them,” he said. He hopes to present models for the police, fire and public works departments – and possibly more.

“I don’t know how ambitious we’re going to be,” he said.

Bennett said he’s urged his department heads to block off the entire day in hopes of touching on changes to every department.

“I’m urging them to understand that the purpose here is not to find ways to offer new services, despite the urgings of citizens or anyone else,” Bennett said. “The purpose is to save money and find ways to do more with less. That’s the goal.”