LEWISTON — Councilors weighed six options Tuesday evening for budget cuts that could lay off as many as eight city employees. 

As part of a presentation on options to further trim a proposed $68.13 million city budget, City Administrator Bryan Kaenrath and Finance Director Tracy Roy shared three tiers of savings, each tallied with and without allowing police personnel to take their vehicles home.

The proposed budget — a 6.6% increase over the current $63.4 million spending plan — includes $59.13 million for operations and $9 million for debt service.

• Tier 1 reflects an additional $1.01 million in nonpersonnel savings proposed by Kaenrath if police are allowed to take their vehicles home and $1.04 million without the vehicle benefit. Neither option involve personnel cuts. The city budget would increase 6.1% above the current year’s budget under Tier 1 in both iterations. 
• Tier 2 would save $1.3 million with take-home vehicles and $1.4 million without by cutting three city positions totaling an additional $295,530 in savings, added to the Tier 1 savings. The city budget would increase by 5.6% over the current year with take-home vehicles and 5.4% without.
• Tier 3 would save $1.76 million with take-home vehicles or $1.89 million without. Both options include cutting three positions outlined in Tier 2 plus an additional five city positions worth $454,482 in savings . City operating expenses would increase by 4.8% over the current year with take-home vehicles and 4.6% without. 

“We are talking about people and their jobs and their livelihoods and people in seats,” Kaenrath said. “That’s very difficult for us. … Of course we can do whatever we need to do, but I think it’s certainly our preferred option to take the $4.1 million savings we already have (trimmed from the original budget) and add Tier 1.”

All three tiers reflect the city receiving full estimated state revenue sharing funds and not just the customary 95%, a factor that adds $580,000 to the cuts.

City officials have warned in recent weeks that further cuts to the proposed budget would come at the expense of staff and services, a reality the city has largely avoided since 2008. This year, more pressure on taxpayers from other sources — rising county spending, higher city debt payments and a potential $12.9 million increase in the Lewiston school budget — limit city budget flexibility, according to Kaenrath.

Under the Tier 1 proposal, for example, which calls for $58.8 million in spending, that number would rise to $73.1 million when adding the $9 million in debt service, an 11.3% hike over this year’d debt service, and the $5.3 million county assessment, a 20.4% increase. All combined, it would be a 7.8% increase for Lewiston taxpayers. 

Once the projected $130.6 million school budget is added, the total for city, county and school would be $203.7 million. That is $18.2 million over the current budget, or a 9.8% increase.

Divided over how aggressively to reduce the budget, some councilors have called for as much as $1.7 million in additional cuts, while others heeded the warning that such cuts risk eroding public services.

Despite wishing to see further cuts, councilors Susan Longchamps of Ward 2, Michael Roy of Ward 4 and Chrissy Noble of Ward 5 supported a Tier 1 option keeping take-home police vehicles in the budget. 

“I really don’t want to cut any positions. Right now the economy, the way things are — nobody can be without their job and that’s really hard for me,” Roy said, adding that he might be amenable to Tier 2 if necessary. “I don’t think I can go to Tier 3 because I do not want to discuss (eight) positions. There’s just no way … I can wrap my head around that.”

Councilors Joshua Nagine of Ward 1, Bret Martel of Ward 7 and Council President David Chittim of Ward 6 cautioned that despite city administration’s good work paring the budget, further cuts may be needed.

Mayor Carl Sheline asked the councilors what direction they could give Kaenrath and his office. 

“I think we’re into ugly-but-necessary territory,” Martel said. “I hate to say this, and it’s not going to make me a popular councilor, but (Tier 3) and maybe more with leaving the cruisers in.”

“My off-the-cuff answer was Tier 6,” Chittim said.

“I wanted to see a reduction in operating expenses to 3 to 3.5%,” Nagine said. “My expectation was that we would cut the budget by $1.7 million, not accounting for the full revenue sharing. … For me, personally, I’m not happy with any of these.”

Sheline noted the absence of Ward 3 Councilor Scott Harriman and suggested with his input that the council may have a consensus on how to direct Kaenrath and his office to proceed either with the finer details of a first-tier option or further cuts beyond a third-tier option.

In an email Wednesday, Harriman said he is “leaning toward Tier 3,” but needs more information about the details of the proposals. He said he is not in favor of the proposal to allow police to take their vehicles home, having maintained from the beginning of budget talks that there is no room for new programs or positions in the budget. 

Harriman added, “I have found it very difficult to get information from city administration during this process. Administration still refuses to share with councilors which positions are proposed to be cut under these different tiers, which is information that we need in order to make an informed decision on behalf of our constituents.”

City officials said departments that may experience staff layoffs cannot be shared until the council approves the cuts and employees are notified.

After the meeting, Sheline said his preference would be to avoid layoffs, citing them as unproductive and negatively impactful to staff morale and municipal services.

“Council members have been asking for the city to do more in a variety of ways during this entire term and reducing staff runs opposite to that aim,” Sheline said. “For example, we can’t be asking for our public spaces to look beautiful while reducing the number of public works staff.”