OLD TOWN – The city council has approved a fiscal year 2020 city budget of just over $17 million.

The budget calls for city expenditures of $10.9 million, along with assessments of $657,000 for Penobscot County and $5.4 million for RSU 34. City revenues for the next fiscal year are estimated at $6.9 million, for a net property tax requirement of just over $10 million.

The city council got its first look at the proposed budget for the next fiscal year, which starts on July 1, in April. That budget – which contained a ‘wish list” for several new positions – was up by $1.5 million, or 18 percent, an amount city officials said from the outset would not be sought.

Some assessments, such as those for the county, RSU 34, and health insurance, are out of the city’s control. But officials got the budget down to the 3 percent maximum increase councilors had indicated they would support primarily by taking two steps – removing all the proposed new positions, which cut $636,000, and taking $818,000 from capital reserves for equipment purchases.

The increase in taxes as adopted in the budget stands at 2.8 percent, but City Manager Bill Mayo told the Times this week that figure did not take into account an increase that was made in municipal revenue sharing for Old Town this past week. Mayo said the actual increase with the revised figures would most likely be somewhere around 1 percent.

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