BANGOR, Maine — The City Council overwhelmingly approved its $89,055,686 budget for fiscal year 2013 on Monday night but opted to delay a vote on expanding Hope House operations.
The budget includes a 45 cent — or 2.3 percent — increase in the mill rate, which will go from $19.20 to $19.65 for every $1,000 in valuation.
A $100,000 home therefore would see a $45 increase and a $1,965 property tax bill each year.
The vote was 8-1 to approve the budget with only Councilor James Gallant voting against it.
“There was no desire to raise taxes,” said City Manager Cathy Conlow. “Our goal is to maintain level taxes and the city has, over the last few years, done a good job of that, but we have spent down a lot of our reserves, we’re still seeing revenue cuts from a lot of sources, and our assessments are either flat or going down, so we’re focusing on our core services.”
The budget includes funding to pay for capital improvements on roads and sidewalks through low-interest $2.5 million bonds, a wage increase for nonunion and union city employees pending negotiations with 11 labor unions, and $1.5 million for new equipment including a fire engine, sidewalk plow and other snow removal equipment.
“Ultimately, the goal is to have a flat budget, but when they made decisions to fund capital improvements with a bond issue for capital improvements, they also made a decision to fund money to pay that back,” said Conlow. “That’s smart and responsible. Not easy, but smart and responsible.”
Another agenda item that drew considerable discussion was a proposal to amend city code to allow conditional uses in Bangor’s government and institutional service district including a rooming house, boarding home or congregate housing facility.
This amendment was requested by Penobscot Community Health Care to allow the nonprofit organization to expand its Hope House facility to include a 25,000-square-foot, 50-unit transitional housing facility.
Two residents living on Dunning Boulevard spoke against the proposal, talking about problems they have had with Hope House residents cutting across their property, leaving beer and alcohol containers behind and verbally abusing homeowners.
Alfred Mosca spoke about people camping in nearby woods and leaving messes behind.
“We beg you to give residents a chance to be heard on this,” Mosca said.
Ken Schmidt, Penobscot Community Health Care’s chief executive officer, presented the expansion plan and offered to meet with residents within a week to address concerns.
Councilors voted unanimously not to take action and revisit the proposal in two weeks.
Good Gallant. Now go do more of what we voted you in to do instead of folding to the big boys. C’mon kid, do what you say, leave a legacy. Ask the tough questions, get the tough answers, make a change man. No excuses.
The mill rate in Bangor is artificially low, kept there by a pro-active assessing department that values homes in Bangor 10-15% above what they are actually worth. Businesses are even more overvalued. Given the circumstances, Bangor’s mill rate is probably around $22.60 per thousand of honest valuation. It will be a lot more once the Hollywood Slots revenue is unable to amortize the Arena bonds and the taxpayers will then be forced to pay for their free arena.
I hate to tell you this, but my home is assessed far below its market value. It all depends on how old the assessment is. One day it will catch up with me, and I’ll be paying above the market value to make up for the difference.
So does that mean that parts of Veazie’s is artificially high? Either way when you look at it $.45 is not bad… Brewer and Veazie are both looking at between $1.25 and $1.80 according to other BDN articles. Orono is looking at $.49. I am not saying I like it, but still it could be worse.
I can’t believe that we’re giving raises to city employees. Unreal.
They said if they don’t give them a raise they might leave and go into the private sector, and do what?
Move out of state where thay can make more and have lower living costs, just like any job.
That’s right they are free to change employers at any time, and if they do leave, considering the present economic enviroment the city would have no problem finding a qualified and perhaps more qualified candidate to fill the position. If they want to move out of state to pursue better job options that is their choice, it also their choice to remain in their current job, which they have chosen to do.
1% COLA raise, first in at least 3 years, probably more, and only for the non-unionized workers. Sure, many in the private sector are not getting COLA adjustments, but plenty are getting them or have gotten them in the past years. Its overdue if you want to attract and keep good workers.
Even I have to take a second look at this and wonder what is the REAL number here… BDN has done this before. They have put a possibly small amount between two very large amounts. Not knowing how many employees there are, or all the other information like amount of full time versus part time and seasonal employees, we as citizens just do not have a dollar figure to go by.
So lets go with a possible worse case scenario. Lets say Bangor has 1500 employees, all working forty hours a week, and all making $30 per hour. Let use WVOM_sux statement of 1% COLA. At 1% that is $450 per hour, or $18,000 a week, OR $936,000 a year (or $624 per employee per year) before taxes. That is less than a million. Yes still a lot, but less than a million, and here it is stuck between two numbers over a million. But I am pretty sure that the city of Bangor does not have 1500 full time employees, or that they make all the same amount of money. So I think it is a safe bet that amount is far less than this scenario, don’t you?
expand the hope house ?! Really ? Dont they have enough problems over there already……. ?
I wonder how much of my taxes are going to crazy things like the water front and the new arena? We can barly make ends meet now. At least they curbed the Hope House expansion for now but at some point those people will get there expansion.
“Those people” have names and they have families. They are just as human as you are and deserve the same respect. People with mental illness didn’t ask for it, and certainly don’t deserve to be treated with your intolerance. People with addictions didn’t ask for the addiction, and in fact, almost 60 % of those who suffer from addiction became addicted through prescriptions that weren’t properly prescribed or monitored and through a lack of sufficient funding for medications required to treat mental illness. A fair amount of addicts become addicted while attempting to recover from some sort of trauma. Unless you’ve walked in their shoes, experienced what they have experienced, and lived the lives they’ve lived, please don’t throw stones at those who are already down.
Do you live next to the Hope House and have to tolerate there actions once they leave. No one that advocates for social service shelters chooses to live next door to them, why is that? Because it creates a deleterious enviroment in the surrounding area that they do not want to have to tolerate!
You, like Scott Richards, have no clue.
And you have no answers only rhetoric
Expand Hope House? Hope is never a good plan…
How about Hope AND Change!
Hope House provides a service to the community, and is not responsible for the behaviors of individuals, whether those individuals utilize the shelter or not. Those who utilize the services provided at Hope House are just as human as those who post on this site. They are not all addicts and not all of them suffer from mental illness. Some have felt the sting of the recession and lost their jobs or had their working hours reduced. Addicts and the Mentally Ill didn’t ask for their disease, they just have to live with it. They deserve the same respect as those who don’t. They didn’t ask for their circumstances, and it’s wrong to judge them for it. That judgment and intolerance shows just how ignorant our society is. Expanding Hope House and adding more beds takes more people off the streets, and is a small step forward toward their independence and freedom from homelessness.
So where is the information on Pauline Civiello’s presentation on proposed charter changes?
This is third rate reporting at best.
Expand its Hope House facility to include a 25,000-square-foot, 50-unit transitional housing facility. Does that include a satellite police station? The Hope House has a police call almost everyday. Most of the “clients” at the Hope House are not looking for a way to better themselves. They know that the Hope House is a “wet shelter” that will allow them to come into it all wasted on whatever. Why can’t the police patrol “the pines” a lot more often. The Hope House “residents” drink and do drugs there all the time. Yeah sure the land is federal. If caught drinking there they get a $1000 fine. That does not deter them from doing it. I once spoke to a church group that delivers food to the homeless. They have been told by the homeless not to enter the pines because it is unsafe. There is a waste needle bin in the bathrooms. From what I understand from residents and staff, 90% of the needles in it are not from Insulin use.
The city of Bangor should have a drug dog at the door sniffing all their clients and their personal belongings. Since they are there daily anyways, why not keep a few officers there to “keep the peace”. Something seriously needs to be done witht the Hope House. The surrounding areas are a disgrace to the tax payers. Sure Bangor needs this kind of program. But to what end?
You really ought to get your facts straight. You really have no clue..
My question is…how many of thoseBangor residents are willing to actually go to the Hope House and see what it’s about? What you hear isn’t always reality. There’s alot of good work going on there and if the people who stay there were your neighbors, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. Anyone of us can become homeless in a heartbeart. Think about it….. Or, maybe the homeless should just sleep in dumpsters or on the street. It’s our decision.