The Saco City Council has asked the city administrator to present a budget proposal with an increase that reflects the increase seniors will receive in Social Security benefits. FILE PHOTO
SACO — After receiving input from the City Council, the city administrator will present a budget proposal that reflects no more than 6.9 percent increase in general fund expenditures.
Saco City Administrator Kevin Sutherland asked the City Council to give him and Finance Director Glenys Salas a direction when presenting a budget.
After receiving the direction, the city administrator will later present a budget proposal, which will be reviewed by the council and discussed over a series of workshops before a final vote.
“At the end of the day, it’s still going to come back to us, we’re still going to tear it apart,” said Councilor Nathan Johnston at Monday night’s City Council meeting.
The current year’s municipal budget is $27.4 million and the current school budget is $39.3 million. The current mil rate in Saco is $19.38.
Salas had presented the City Council with three proposed budget directive scenarios last week, one that would have increased the budget by 2.5 percent an not increased the mil rate, another with a 5 percent increase that city officials called a maintenance budget and a third, “critical needs” budget that would increase the budget by 9.6 percent. However, the City Council decided on Monday to go in a different direction.
City Councilor Alan Minthorn said the city should adjust the budget proposal to reflect what the city needs to pay for contractual obligations, and increase the rest of the budget by 1.9 percent, to reflect the 1.9 percent increase in Social Security that seniors will receive.
“There’s not one senior in this town that has a penny more than that to spend on their taxes,” said Minthorn.
This proposal would be a starting point, and the City Council will discuss with department staff specific requests above this base budget, said Minthorn.
The council voted to approve Minthorn’s suggested budget directive five to two, with Councilors Johnston and Micah Smart opposing.
Smart said he wanted to see a figure on what Minthorn’s budget proposal looked like before voting to approve it.
Sutherland said he will be presenting the budget that is no more than a 6.9 percent increase in general fund expenditures.
“I am confident the increased assessed value will cover a portion of this to keep the municipal mill rate as low as possible. After the presentation of the budget on March 18th, Council will hold workshops to review each department’s base budget and discuss the requests above the directive. Council can take action with at least four votes to change any part of the budget – adding or subtracting where they see fit,” said Sutherland.
Information on how this budget directive could impact the city’s mil rate was not available by press time.
— Staff Writer Liz Gotthelf can be reached at 780-9015 or by email at [email protected]
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