Topsham residents passed a $14.84 million municipal budget at the annual town meeting Wednesday night, setting up a tax hike of over 9% if the School Administrative District 75 budget is approved at the ballot box this June.

Town expenditures are up about 4% compared to the current fiscal year. Big cost drivers included wages and benefits for town employees, especially health insurance, Topsham Town Manager Mark Waltz said in February.

Besides the town’s portion of the total budget, residents approved some administrative items at the town meeting.

These include amending the tax increment financing district on Union Park Road, meant to help fund a four-story apartment building intended for local workers. This measure reduces the TIF district created in a November ballot measure to just the area of the planned building. The technical change was required by MaineHousing, Waltz said.

Another article passed Wednesday night allows town access to a proposed location for the Topsham Community Center near the Topsham Fairgrounds and the Route 196 bypass. Though, the vote will have no effect if residents don’t ultimately approve a community center in this spot, a measure which has not yet come before voters.

Two more measures will allow the town to spend money raised from impact fees — funds the town has already raised — to build a sidewalk at the western end of Park Drive and to complete an updated natural areas plan.

On the school side, the SAD 75 board in April approved a $61.2 million budget for the upcoming fiscal year, requiring the towns of Topsham, Harpswell, Bowdoin and Bowdoinham to raise roughly $3 million more from taxes than in previous years.

There will be a school district budget meeting on the evening of May 21, then voters will have the final say on the budget in a June 9 referendum.

The Times Record Sustaining Sponsor
We believe a community must be informed to thrive. bowdoin.edu