RUMFORD — Selectmen will hold a budget hearing at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 10, in Rumford Falls Auditorium.
Town Manager Carlo Puiia said Wednesday that the meeting is for department heads to present their budgets to the board for review.
But whether selectmen will ask department heads to reduce their budgets by hundreds of thousands of dollars is anyone’s guess, Puiia said.
That issue was raised by two selectmen, Mark Belanger and Greg Buccina, at last week’s budget workshop on whether the town could continue to maintain its current level of services.
Puiia said the board as a whole did not vote to have department heads do this in preparation for Thursday’s meeting, because selectmen cannot vote during a workshop.
Belanger said at last week’s meeting that he’d like the board to aim for a one-mill reduction for its proposed municipal budget. Puiia said one mill currently raises $505,000 in Rumford.
Last year’s approved budget was $6.65 million, down $104,381 from the approved 2009-10 budget of $6.76 million.
Last year, 30 percent of town meeting voters said no to the proposed budget, Puiia said.
“To me, it said that 70 percent wanted their services,” he said.
That’s why he doesn’t think a one-mill reduction will work.
“There’s no way we can cut one mill from the budgets and make up for it with efficiencies,” Puiia said.
He said that since the 1997-98 budget year, Rumford has actually decreased its budgets when adjusting them for today’s inflation.
“In ’97-’98, we’re at $7.767 (million) and this year, at $6.717 (million), so we’ve actually cut two mills,” he said of budgets adjusted for the inflation rate.
“So when you really consider all of the energy cost increases and the insurance cost increases, we’ve reduced our budget, and we know that the police have a smaller force than they did 15 years ago, and we know the fire (department) has a smaller force,” Puiia said.
Selectmen will continue the budget process on Monday, March 14, and Monday, March 21, when they field funding requests from town organizations. Those meetings are also at 7 p.m. in the auditorium.
The board will vote on its proposed 2011-12 municipal budget at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 24, in the auditorium.
After that, it will be in the hands of the Finance Committee to make its recommendations.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.