JAY — Selectpersons and Budget Committee members worked 3½ hours Thursday night to make $169,000 in tentative cuts from a $5.4 million draft 2016-17 budget.

The overall goal was to reduce the budget by 10 percent. Department heads had already reduced the proposal by $250,000.

The cuts will be reviewed Feb. 22 and 23 at Spruce Mountain High School to determine if they will be finalized. 

The plan for reduction is: Police Department, $10,000; Buildings and Grounds, $19,000; Town Government, $45,000; offset for a truck from the Transfer Station, $40,000; donations, $21,000; and Channel 7, $5,000.

Department heads and Town Manager Shiloh LaFreniere will need to make $29,000 more in cuts to meet the overall goal.

If the selectpersons and Budget Committee officially approve the reductions, then it brings the draft proposal to $5.2 million, $391,566 less than the current $5.6 million spending plan. The proposal does not factor in revenues.

LaFreniere said that $700,000 in spending currently equates to $1 per $1,000 on the tax bill. Taking the town’s valuation and the lowest valuation for Verso Androscoggin LLC paper mill and related equipment, and nothing else changed, taxpayers are looking at an estimated tax rate in the low $20s per $1,000 of value, she said. Homeowners would see the Homestead Exemption go from $10,000 to $15,000 this year, which could help offset the increase.

The tax rate is $17.25.

The entire budget for tax assessment purposes breaks down to:

• Municipal budget, 28.2 percent;

• Franklin County taxes, 6.2 percent;

• Regional School Unit 73 budget, 59.2 percent; and

• Tax-incentive financing agreement with Verso, 6.4 percent.

To eliminate $45,000 from the Town Government budget, it would mean the Town Office would close one day a week. In addition, a 15-hour position in the Finance Department would be eliminated and one full-time clerk would be reduced to 25 hours per week, Town Clerk Ronda Palmer said.

Selectpersons are also looking at only funding necessary requests that fall into the donation category. To reduce the Building and Grounds budget by $19,000 would mean a change in workweek hours, a 35-hour position for the custodian/animal control officer and $5,000 eliminated in capital. Selectpersons would also look at increasing burial fees and other cemetery-related expenses.

Department heads, selectpersons and Budget Committee members looked for the reductions in each budget.

Officials said they hoped RSU 73 officials were also considering significant reductions.

“If we’re laying off and they are still hiring, that’s wrong,” she said.

When looking for reductions, Budget Committee member Michael Ventrella said it’s a matter of sharing the pain. It won’t be easy for the homeowners to absorb the increased tax rate, he said.

dperry@sunmediagroup.com

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