BIDDEFORD — On Monday, a public hearing on Biddeford’s 2012-13 budget will be held at Biddeford Middle School at 7 p.m. As proposed, this budget would have the largest tax rate increase in recent years.

The public is urged to attend and express their thoughts and concerns about the budget.

The budget that will be presented at the hearing, which includes city, school and county expenditures, is $61.3 million. That’s an increase of $4.5 million or 7.9 percent over last year’s budget.

The increase for city government would be 9.9 percent; 6.6 percent for the schools ”“ including K-12 and adult education; and 1.75 percent for the county.

The proposed tax rate is $17.40, an increase of $1.98 or 12.8 percent from last year’s tax rate of $15.42.

Although this would be huge increase in the tax burden of residents, Council President Rick Laverriere cautioned that “it’s a work in progress.”

Mayor Alan Casavant said he would veto a budget that has such a large increase.

This increase, which is much larger than those considered in the past few year, came about because this year the city council, when functioning as the budget committee, took a different tact in it’s budget process.

In the past, city council directed the city manager to deliver a budget with a prescribed percentage increase on the tax rate.

Using that strategy, since 2009, the tax rate has remained fairly steady, said Finance Director Curt Koehler. There was actually a slight dip in the 2011 tax rate by a few pennies.

In the 2012 budget, when the $34 million bond to pay for renovations to Biddeford High School kicked in, there was a significant jump in the tax rate of 72 cents, an increase from $14.70 in 2011 to $15.42.

The even larger tax rate increase under consideration for the budget that would begin July 1 is a result of council members’ desire to work from a “needs-based” budget.

They asked to see the budget that the city’s department heads produced detailing their needs before the city manager takes his pen to it and cuts costs.

“The whole process this year has been completely different than anything we’ve ever done before,” said City Manager John Bubier.

In addition to looking at all the city’s needs, the increase being considered is a result of the loss of revenues along with increasing costs in fuel, insurance, electricity and other areas that the city has no control over, he said.

Also, because of changes at the state level there is a $300,000 increase in the Health and Human Services budget.

“This year has been the perfect storm,” said Bubier.

He said it’s important for the public to come to Monday’s hearing to discuss what they’d like to see in the budget.

“The economy triggered poor budgeting over the past few years,” said Mayor Alan Casavant. “Now the chickens are coming home to roost.”

“The needs-based budget has been good for information purposes,” he said.

While he said he recognizes there needs to be an investment in the city’s infrastructure, “we need to prioritize what we can do this year.”

“I’d veto that budget as is, absolutely,” said the mayor.

This year’s budget was “eye-opening,” said Bob Mills, who is serving his third consecutive term on the council and is working on his fifth city budget.

“People want fire trucks on every corner; they want their trash picked up,” he said, plus there are serious needs in the city’s infrastructure.

He’s in favor of a needs-based budget because “it sets a path for the future,” said Mills, however “I think there’s some wiggle room.”

“I realize there will be an increase,” he said, “but we’re not going to be able to do it all.”

“I really want to hear from the people,” he said.

— Staff Writer Dina Mendros can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 324 or [email protected].