JAY — The town has two trucks in bad shape and something needs to be done, Town Manager Ruth Cushman said Friday.

She will discuss options on them with selectmen at 6 p.m. Monday, Feb. 11, at the Town Office.

A plow truck at the highway department is 11 years old and constantly needs repairs. The other vehicle is a 10-year-old pickup truck used for building and grounds. It is a former highway department vehicle.

There is money in the highway department capital reserve to buy a new plow truck, Cushman said.

“If we refurbish the truck we’re still going to have an old truck,” she said.

She talked to a town mechanic about the buildings and grounds truck and he doesn’t believe it will pass another inspection. That inspection expires in mid-spring, she said.

The town’s buildings and grounds custodian, Larry Wright, has used the truck for three years, she said.

Cushman will also talk with selectmen about the effect that the governor’s budget proposal would have if state revenue sharing to towns is eliminated. She will also explain what the governor’s proposal to eliminate the Business Equipment Tax Reimbursement program in favor of the state’s Business Equipment Tax Exemption Program could mean for the town.

The town would get $404,000 in state revenue sharing if the state stuck with the 5 percent it originally had given towns, Cushman said. The formula changed and the program does not reimburse as much, she said.

In the current budget, it was projected that the town would receive $275,231 in revenue sharing.

“As of Jan. 18, we have received $137,487,” she said.

The elimination of the BETR program will not have as dramatic an effect on Jay as it will on other towns because most of the personal property and equipment is in tax-increment financing programs, she said. It would have a significant effect on Verso Paper Corp.’s Androscoggin Paper Mill in Jay, she said.

The governor’s proposed budget suggests lawmakers end the program that reimburses businesses for personal property taxes they pay on equipment they need to operate. Instead, LePage would exempt businesses from paying the tax in the first place and reimburse towns and cities for the revenue losses under another state program known as the Business Equipment Tax Exemption program, or BETE.

The towns and cities would be reimbursed by the state at 60 percent of what they would have collected in taxes from businesses. Under BETE, that amount would drop to 50 percent over time.

According to Michael Allen, an associate director of tax policy at Maine Revenue Services, BETR reimbursements would be frozen for any taxes paid in 2013, which means big companies that get big reimbursements — including Verso Paper, Bath Iron Works and Tambrands — would receive no reimbursements in 2014. 

dperry@sunjournal.com

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