BRUNSWICK
The Brunswick Town Council passed a series of resolutions, each unanimously, on Thursday, thereby approving a 3.5 percent increase in the tax rate to help pay for a combined $57.9 million budget.
The council also sent the school’s portion of the budget — a $35.6 million allocation — to voters to approve or reject in a June 10 referendum.
At a tax rate increase of 3.5 percent, the total budget is $57,914,593. This requires $36.6 million from property taxes. A 3.5-percent increase in property taxes would mean about a $140 tax bill increase for a property assessed at $150,000.
Councilors John Richardson and John Perreault both noted they have heard from constituents who say they will have difficulty paying for a 3.5-percent increase.
Several councilors Thursday blamed rising costs on decreases in state funding, including a loss in state municipal revenue sharing. Brunswick also received a little less than $10 million in state subsidy to pay for K-12 education for the next fiscal year.
Based on Maine’s Essential Programs and Services (EPS) Funding Act’s funding formula, education in Brunswick ought to cost around $26 million annually. Richardson — a former Maine House Speaker — noted that the funding model is a baseline adopted in 2005 to measure the average costs of education, including transportation, teacher salaries and other costs.
“Some communities decided that the average is not what we want,” Richardson said. As a result, many communities, including Brunswick, exceed the EPS guidelines.
“We don’t want average schools,” he added. “We want better than average, and are willing to pay a little bit more.”
However, factors such as declining student enrollment has meant that Brunswick has lost $4 million in state funding under the EPS formula.
Additionally, Chairman Benet Pols also decried the loss of Maine’s circuit breaker program which had aided individual property owners of high-value property with limited income.
“It’s gone and replaced by a shadow of itself,” Pols said.
The circuit breaker program was replaced by the Property Tax Fairness Credit, a program that offers less tax relief and for which fewer residents qualify.
jswinconeck@timesrecord.com
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