North Yarmouth officials are proposing a $4.4 million municipal budget, an increase of about $200,000, or 4.5%.
If the budget passes as proposed, the tax rate will go up 30 cents, or 1.75%, to $17.40 per $1,000 of assessed value. The owner of a $500,000 home, which is the average priced local home, according to Zillow, would see an $8,700 property tax bill for FY23, an increase of $150 over this year.
The main driver for the FY 22-23 budget proposal is wages and benefits for town employees, which total $1.6 million, an increase of just under $250,000.
The budget also includes a 5.9% cost of living adjustment. Town Manager Diane Barnes said that like other other communities, North Yarmouth has had difficulty retaining and recruiting employees to fill vacancies, so wages for town positions will be proposed that are closer to market value.
“We want to do what we can to keep our good, trained employees and that’s what this budget is going to do,” Barnes said. “In my career, I’ve never seen the work pool so slim. As employers, we have to start thinking outside of the box to fill these voids.”
Also proposed is an additional full-time position for a facility programmer for the Wescustogo Community Center, with wages and benefits totaling $69,858.
The spending plan includes the county tax assessment but not the school budget. The tax proposed by Cumberland County for FY23 for the town is about $377,000, a decrease of $19,000 from this year.
Barnes said money has already been set aside in the reserve fund for many capital improvement projects for FY23, and she is asking for $179,000, compared to $744,600 this year. Projects include a new sprinkler system for the public works department, maintenance at town hall and putting money aside for Wescustogo Hall’s solar array, which is costs about $37,000 annually and needs to be paid off by 2026.
The Select Board is hosting in-person budget workshops Wednesdays at Wescustogo Hall Community Center. The March 23 meeting will be at 5:30 p.m.; all other meetings will begin at 8 p.m. Tax increment financing will be the topic March 23 and tax rate projections and revenues will be discussed March 30. Recorded meetings can be seen after those dates at townhallstreams.com/towns/north_yarmouth_maine.
“I think it’s a very lean budget considering what we’ve been going through here after COVID. I’m proud of the 4% increase,” Barnes said. “We’ll wait and see how the revenues can affect that and lower that a little bit.”
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