BRUNSWICK — The Brunswick Town Council plans to make no changes to a school budget that seeks a $2.4 million increase in local funds, but other areas of municipal spending remain under scrutiny.
At a workshop Monday, the council delivered no directives to town staff regarding a proposed $54,865,804 budget, which would increase property taxes 6.21 percent. However, some councilors expressed a general desire to seek additional reductions to municipal spending to lower the prospective tax rate increase.
The proposed increase would raise the property tax rate from $23.68 to $25.15 per $1,000 of valuation. That jump equates to $294 more per year — from $4,736 to $5,030 this year — for a home valued at $200,000.
With education comprising 62 percent of the town’s spending in the proposed budget for next year and councilors in support of the pro- posed school budget, cuts would have to come elsewhere to lower the tax increase.
Overall, the proposed 2012-13 school budget would increase 0.6 percent over this year’s, but steep cuts to state and federal funding subtracted approximately $3 million from the school system’s revenue from other than local sources. Per state law, the school budget will go to a townwide vote on June 12.
Town Manager Gary Brown said Monday that he anticipates an additional $50,000 in property tax revenue, mostly from development at the former Brunswick Naval Air Station, and around $13,000 from a new, lower estimate of the water rate. At a previous budget meeting, Brown also said he expects the town to receive around $300,000 as a result of a tax increment financing district for property at Brunswick Landing and $15,000 in revenue from the Great State of Maine Air Show.
Generally, councilors expressing support for a lower tax rate increase drew no lines in the sand, with only District 7 Councilor John Perreault throwing out a projection that he would like to limit the property tax rate increase to 5 percent, down from the proposed 6.2 percent increase.
“I think we need to show a good faith effort that we’re trying to cut back,” Perreault said.
To deflect some of the tax increase this year, the town will use approximately $1 million in reserve funds, which John Eldridge, the town’s finance director, said amounts to about a 3 percent impact to the tax rate.
Brown said at a meeting earlier this month that such dependence on municipal savings would likely be unwise beyond another year.
“We need to be careful that we don’t rely on that because it may not be there in a few years,” Brown said.
Rich Ellis, chairman of the School Board’s budget and finance committee, has projected further decreases in Brunswick’s state subsidy to the tune of $1.8 million in 2014 and $1.4 million in 2015.
Anticipating those education subsidy reductions and a time when the reserve account could not be used to compensate partially for them, some councilors said the question of tax increases is not a matter of “if ” but “when.”
At the heart of that discussion Monday was a $400,000 budget for “other road construction.” Brown said half of that budget is a placeholder to pay interest on a loan the town expects to seek to build a new police station at the corner of Stanwood and Pleasant streets.
At-large Councilor Benet Pols said he was curious to know whether his constituents would prefer to see the impact of that money on the tax rate — less than 1 percent — this year or next year, assuming the passage of a bond to build the station.
Aside from general support of a lower tax rate, councilors Monday expressed a desire to consider adding more to the town’s budget dedicated to sidewalk improvement and construction.
District 7 Councilor Sarah Brayman said she would like to see more money dedicated to sidewalk repair or construction in a capital improvement budget that put forward no money for that specific use.
In total, the proposed budget includes $1.2 million in street resurfacing and reconstruction, but Brayman and other councilors expressed interest in dedicating some of those funds specifically to sidewalks.
The Town Council will meet again Thursday at 6 p.m. to give town staff final recommendations before a budget is prepared for a vote scheduled to take place during a meeting on Thursday, May 31, at 6 p.m. Both meetings are to take place in the town council chambers at Brunswick Station, 16 Station Ave.
dfishell@timesrecord.com
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
