The proposed $19.5 million Gorham municipal spending plan reinstitutes a town engineer’s position and adds an assistant town planner and deputy EMS fire chief while raising the tax rate 4.4%.
The budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 is up $1.3 million, or 7%, from $18.3 million this year.
The proposed property tax rate would rise 22 cents per $1,000 of valuation, from $4.99 to $5.21, to meet the town’s obligations. Taxes on a home with an assessed value of $300,000 would rise $66 from $1,497 to $1,563.
However, Town Manager Ephrem Paraschak in an April 9 letter to the Town Council said he expects the tax rate to decrease as “additional new valuation is added as a result of the concluding town-wide revaluation project.”
The municipal budget includes the $1.4 million Cumberland County tax-assessed Gorham, up $45,660 from $1.38 million this year, or 3.3%.
The municipal budget does not include the Gorham school budget that the School Committee was expected to adopt April 13 after the American Journal deadline. The School Committee is required to submit the proposed school budget to Paraschak by April 22.
The proposed town budget restores a town engineer’s position that was cut in 2009. Adding the job would cost $92,102.
“The position will take over many of the responsibilities that have been contracted to third-party inspectors and will serve as an in-house engineer similar to most communities Gorham’s size,” Paraschak wrote.
The budget also would create an assistant town planner post for $60,000. The assistant’s position, Paraschak wrote, is proposed to alleviate much of the backlog in project reviews and streamline the approval process for business applications. The position would also step up a process to modify the town’s ordinances.
The Fire and Rescue Department would get a new deputy EMS fire chief, at a cost of $64,605. A part-time fire inspector position would be eliminated for a savings of $41,564, and those responsibilities would be distributed to other management positions in the department, Paraschak said.
The town’s three most costly departments to operate are the Police Department at $2.2 million; followed by Public Works, also at $2.2 million but $537 less than police; and Fire and Rescue, $2.1 million.
“As is the case with other communities, Gorham continues to struggle with rising costs due to inflation and employee recruitment and retention. Despite these rising costs, much of the municipal operating budget has been held below inflation,” Paraschak wrote. “Funding is included in this budget for cost of living adjustments for employees, contractual obligations with bargaining units, as well as wage adjustments to attempt to keep our employee wages semi-competitive with other municipalities.”
The Town Council is expected to approve a budget June 7.
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