SOUTH BERWICK, Maine — Voters at the annual town meeting last week shot down Article 22, which looked to raise the property tax levy limit.
The vote has left the town council unable to set the tax rate for the next year and may force them to re-examine part or all of the local budget to conform to the current limit.
According to town manager Perry Ellsworth, the state sets standards, or limits, for how much is needed to operate a town with tax dollars. These standards may include having four firefighters on per shift, rather than two, or having four police patrol officers, plus a dispatcher, on one night shift, rather than two officers plus a dispatcher.
The standards are set based on the income of the town, among other factors.
Each town also has an assigned property tax levy limit, created to limit property tax increases in a given year.
Last year’s budget was $146,000 under the operating standard for the town. This year’s budget, due to a 6.45 percent decrease in revenue and a 10.26 percent in expenditures, was $420,000 above the levy limit. For the tax rate to be set at $5.73 per $1,000 of valuation, the levy limit had to be raised by voter approval of Article 22.
“What’s a shame is the rest of the budget articles were approved unanimously or almost unanimously,” said Ellsworth.
He added that he thinks when some residents voted on the article, they thought it was looking to add an additional amount of money to their tax rate, when instead it would have allowed the tax rate to be set by the previous articles voters approved.
Ellsworth said the council will discuss the matter when it next meets on June 13.
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Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.