Otisfield Selectmen Hal Ferguson and Rick Micklon review parts of the municipal budget for 2017-18 at Tuesday’s meeting at the Town Office.
OTISFIELD — The Board of Selectmen and Administrative Assistant reviewed parts of the 2017-18 municipal budget Tuesday evening.
Pastore said the town election line would go down “significantly” because 2017 isn’t an election year.
“As far as I can see, we have our June and November elections, and that’s it,” Pastore said, adding that she would leave the line item at $2,500.
Chairman Hal Ferguson told Selectman Rick Micklon and Pastore that he wanted to see the town’s legal services budget “plussed up.”
“Every year, we bring that budget down, and every year, something comes up that makes us spend the money,” Ferguson said.
“We’ll probably be $2,000 overbudget by the time the year’s done,” he said.
Micklon said he’d rather not raise anything “if there’s a chance that we’ll never end up using it.”
“I wouldn’t want to raise a budget, which would raise the town’s taxes, and then we don’t end up spending the money,” Micklon said. “I’d like to leave things flat, if possible, and if we do need more money, we have access to contingency funds or other accounts to cover it.”
Micklon had a similar opinion about the revaluation reserve account.
Pastore said the revaluation reserve account has $77,700, and traditionally voters appropriate $10,000 each year.
Micklon said he would want the town to continue appropriating $10,000 annually rather than bumping it up and raising the town’s taxes.
He said revaluations can cost between $120,000 and $200,000.
“If we decide to do a revaluation in the next few years, then we may need to figure out where we’re going to get the money,” Micklon said.
When the board began discussing the budget for the Town Office building, Micklon said he had new information on a proposal for an electronic sign for it. He said Neokraft Signs in Lewiston proposed a black-and-white sign for $21,859.
“I’m not proposing anything (for the budget) tonight, but it’s something we can look at moving forward,” he said.
The Finance Committee will meet at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 4, to continue its review of the budget.
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