LIVERMORE FALLS — Selectmen will begin talks for a 2013-14 budget Tuesday, Feb. 19.

The meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. at the Town Office.

The Budget Committee has scheduled meetings for 6 p.m. Tuesdays, Feb. 12 and 26, and March 12 and 26 at the Town Office.

Town Manager Kristal Flagg asked selectmen on Feb. 4 how they wanted to approach the budget this year, she said.

“I think we need to put a budget together to run the town,” Chairman Bill Demaray said. “We will try and save wherever we can.”

He also pointed out Jay, Livermore and Livermore Falls will have no carryover in the coming budget to help offset the RSU 73 budget. When RSU 36 and Jay school systems merged in July 2011, each of the three towns had carryover money that had been raised by taxation to help offset school budgets. Those funds ran out with the current budget.

Gov. Paul LePage is also proposing to eliminate state revenue sharing with towns in his two-year budget.

If the Legislature approves LePage’s plan, it could mean the town would lose $351,000 in revenue to offset its budget, Flagg said. That would mean an increase in the tax rate of $3 per $1,000 value of property, not factoring in the school budget. The current tax rate is $20.80.

If the town proposed no capital improvements, no paving and no new cruiser purchase, that would make up the $351,000, she said.

“It’s really hard to sit here in February and March and know what is going to happen next year,” she said.

The town warrant needs to be put together by April 19 and a public hearing held on the proposed town budget on April 29 to put it before voters in a referendum on Tuesday, June 11.

With so many unknown factors and not knowing when the budget will be finalized, Selectman Louise Chabot suggested putting an article on the town warrant for a special town meeting that would ask voters to let the town operate on its current budget after July 1. Voters usually vote on such an article in the June vote in case articles fail.

Selectmen are planning a special town meeting in March to ask voters if they want to use $80,000 from the town’s undesignated funds to help the sewer department get its budget back on track.

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