LIVERMORE — The Budget Committee will meet Thursday to review a proposed $1.25 million budget for municipal government for 2012-13.

The meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. April 19 at the Town Office. The net budget, after carry-forwards and departmental revenues are factored in, is proposed at $1.1 million, town administrative assistant Kurt Schaub said.

The budget does not include the town’s share of Androscoggin County and Regional School Unit 73 taxes.

“We are budgeting for $10,000 less in carry-forwards” than was budgeted last year, Schaub said. Carry-forwards are funds anticipated to be left over in the current budget to help offset taxes for the next year.

“As in the past, the budget was drafted to be mindful of our residents while maintaining reasonable levels of municipal services,” Schaub said in a memo to the Budget Committee. To that end, the “core” portion of the budget, which excludes capital expenditures and voter-approved debt service, was held to a 0.76 percent increase or $6,677 from 2011-12, Schaub said.

The budget also contains $41,000 of increases for capital programs, for a budgetary total of $281,400, he said. The Highway Capital Improvement budget was increased by $20,000 to make it $260,000.

“Our residents consistently comment that they want better roads, yet the price of asphalt continues to rise at a level few can keep pace with,” Schaub wrote in his memo. The bulk of the expense is actual pavement, with the town’s Highway Department continuing to do all the heaviest of reconstruction work, he said.

There is also $6,400 in the budget to replace a nearly 30-year-old air compressor in the Highway Garage and for bulk replacement of hand tools and power equipment. The compressor alone is estimated to cost roughly $2,800.

There is also $15,000 in the budget to begin a reserve fund that will be dedicated to updating or replacing town buildings, Schaub said.

One of the items that came out of an insurance inspection review was that the Highway Garage would benefit by having vinyl siding installed. Currently the building has Texture 111, Schaub said. The buildings like the Town Office are also inadequate for what “we are using it for today,” he said.

Another example is the two-axle plow truck with the plow that does not fit in the Highway Garage, he said. “Trucks don’t fit in the building,” he said.

[email protected]

Supporting Sponsor for Franklin Journal, Livermore Falls Advertiser, Rangeley Highlander and Rumford Falls Times.
Keeping communities informed by supporting local news. franklinsavings.bank