AUBURN — Arts groups, economic development agencies and 911 call centers may be perfectly fine, but councilors Monday night said they were not willing to overlook anything when it came to trimming budgets.
“It’s the same thing we heard from the schools last week: people will move here because of the schools or the library or the arts,” Councilor Dan Herrick said Monday. “But let me tell you why people move out: they can’t afford to live here any more.”
Councilors heard budget requests and program descriptions from seven joint Lewiston-Auburn groups representing about $1.5 million in Auburn spending.
Those groups, representing Lewiston-Auburn’s economic development, culture, transit and emergency agencies, will present their budget requests the Lewiston city councilors Tuesday night. That meeting is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. in Lewiston City Hall.
Auburn councilors are working on a draft municipal budget that calls for a $983,004 increase in spending combined with a $475,768 reduction in non-property tax revenues. The city-side of the proposed budget would need an additional $1.5 million from property taxes. Combined increases proposed by the school department, the overall budget would require $3.2 million more from property taxes. That amounts to an increase of $1.78 per $1,000 of value increase in property taxes. That’s an increase of about $252 for a $145,000 home.
On Monday, councilors heard from the Lewiston Auburn Transit Committee, which operates the citylink bus system, the Auburn Lewiston Municipal Airport, Great Falls TV, L/A Arts, L-A 911, the Androscoggin County Emergency Management Agency and the Lewiston-Auburn Economic Growth Council. Councilors made no decisions Monday but will discuss it at budget hearings in the next few weeks.
The growth council was a big target for councilors. It markets the Twin Cities to business developers around the country, provides loans to developers and helps developers work their way through the development review process. That group is looking for $334,974 from the Twin Cities — $167,487 each from Lewiston and Auburn.
But Herrick said he’s not sure the group is worth the money. He doubted their effectiveness in bringing in business and said he felt Auburn could survive with its own economic development office.
“I think you are like the Maine (Department of Transportation) and the Maine Turnpike — you are just redundant,” Herrick said. “If I had money to invest or develop, I would never, ever think of contacting the growth council. I would contact the city. That’s who I’d talk to. That’s where I’d get my information.”
Councilor Ray Berube, who sits on the LAEGC’s board, asked tough questions about about the growth council’s salaries and benefits but also defended them.
“I believe in the organization,” Berube said. There is no way I’d like to see them gone.”
Councilors were equally skeptical of L/A Arts. Executive Director O’Delle Bowman said that group is asking for $20,160 from Auburn to continue providing live entertainment, classroom instruction and local event scheduling. That’s the same amount of money the city gave her last year.
But Herrick said he favored cuts.
“I can no longer support something that not everybody uses in this city,” Herrick said. “If there is such a great need for you and everything, then I feel you can go ahead and survive without us.”
Herrick was also critical of the Lewiston-Auburn 911 call center, which handles all of the emergency calls and dispatching for the Twin Cities. That group requested $977,000 each from Lewiston and Auburn.
“But the system is broken,” Herrick said. “We need to do something different, come up with some other way for people to call in.”
Even relatively small budgets got special scrutiny. Councilor Mike Farrell suggested the city no longer fund its share of the county Emergency Management Agency. That group was requesting $5,806 from the city — $954 less than it received in the current budget.
“It seems like this is just another redundancy, ” Farrell said. “Can we eliminate this line item and just do all this in house?”
Auburn councilors are scheduled to continue their budget discussions Thursday.
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