BIDDEFORD — There are no easy answers this budget season, said Mayor Alan Casavant.

According to the city website, the budget committee, made up of the entire city council, is considering an approximately $63 million budget, which includes expenditures for the city, school and county, for the 2014 fiscal year budget beginning July 1. The amount of property taxes to be raised to fund this budget is estimated to be $44 million.

This budget, said Casavant, contains increased costs ”“ including new costs for the city’s new solid waste and recycling program, also set to start July 1 ”“ and reduced revenue as a result of the Dec. 31 closure of the city’s single largest taxpayer, the Maine Energy Recovery Company waste-to-energy incinerator, which had paid nearly $1 million in property taxes.

If the budget under consideration were passed as is, the increase to the tax rate could be around 13 percent.

However, said City Manager John Bubier, the budget is in flux, and “it’s not appropriate to throw numbers out there.”

Casavant said he doesn’t favor such a high tax rate.

“People can’t afford a significant tax increase,” he said. “A double-digit increase is unacceptable.”

But efforts at the city level to reduce the budget may not be enough.

Changes being contemplated at the state level could have a negative effect on the city budget and result in significant revenue losses, said Casavant.

Gov. Paul LePage has proposed eliminating revenue sharing to all municipalities for the upcoming fiscal year. According to the Maine Municipal Association, ending revenue sharing would amount to $2.3 million in lost revenue to Biddeford.

Also, the governor has proposed reducing state aid to education as well as increasing education costs by shifting the cost of state retirement benefits for teachers to school districts. The shifting of retirement costs to Biddeford would add more than $400,000 to the school budget.

Casavant, who is also the state representative for House District 137, which includes part of Biddeford and Kennebunkport, said the Legislature hasn’t voted on the governor’s budget and it’s unclear what legislators will do.

While reducing these state revenue sources to municipalities is unpopular, he said, the state has a deficit with which it must deal, too.

“No one has an answer at the state on how to make this up,” said Casavant. “Everybody is perplexed about what to do and how to do it fairly.”

One solution, he said, is to raise the state sales tax.

However, said Casavant, LePage would almost certainly veto a tax increase, and it’s unlikely there would be the necessary two-thirds majority in either the Senate or House of Representatives to override the governor’s veto.

Without a tax increase at the state level, the only choices for city government will be to increase local taxes or cut personnel and services, said Casavant.

“People are going to be unhappy with either scenario,” he said.

The budget committee is holding a number of workshops this month.

A public hearing on the budget will be held May 13 at 7 p.m. at the Biddeford Middle School Performing Arts Center.

A final vote on the budget by city council is scheduled for June 3. The public referendum on the school budget will take place June 13.

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

* An earlier version of this story was published with an omission. This version reflects the correction(s).