HOULTON, Maine — Residents are once again seeing an increase in their property tax bills as school budget and fuel increases and a lack of available surplus funds have prompted a spike in the mill rate.
Interim Town Manager Cathy O’Leary said Monday that tax bills mailed out last week reflect the current mill rate of $19.95 per $1,000 of valuation.
That’s a $1 increase from the tax rate of $18.95 set in July 2011.
O’Leary said a number of factors contributed to the jump, including a spike in the SAD 29 school budget, an increase in the Aroostook County tax, and higher expenses for fuel and other items.
In the past, the town has dipped into its surplus fund to offset taxation and hold or lower the tax rate, but the council refrained from such action for the second straight year.
“We have not built the fund up enough,” O’Leary said Monday afternoon.
Town Treasurer Nedra Hanson said the undesignated fund balance stands at $471,880, which is up more than $200,000 from the prior year.
Still, the account balance is much smaller than it has been in current years, when it contained more than $1.2 million.
The town is trying to build the surplus account back up to an acceptable level before spending any more of it. The town’s auditor has recommended that the surplus account contain at least $1 million.
The town’s tax rate hovered at 18.5 mills for two years until it decreased to 18.25 mills in 2007. The rate remained steady before it increased by 1 mill in 2009. The figure has crept up slowly ever since.
Each year, the council dipped into its surplus account to hold or decrease the mill rate. That began to change in 2010, when a number of factors influenced the decrease in the surplus account. They included lower than expected ambulance revenues and a nearly $300,000 dip in state revenues.
As property owners, we should all expect to see more and more of this as our illustrious governor shifts the burden to the local level. It is all part of the shell game he has been playing to disguise the fact that he’s too incompetent to balance a budget.
Just a thought. But if what you are saying is correct. You are going to pay your neighbors bills when they mismanage thier income? YOU ARE A SWEETHEART!!
Actually, yes I am a sweetheart, but even better, I am intelligent. I’ll “walk you through” the process, so you can understand why your reply is so far off base.
1. The more Lepage shifts costs to local governments, the fewer dollars towns will have.
In order to operate, the towns will have to get their money elsewhere, so it stands to reason it will come from increased property taxes.
2. If my neighbor can no longer afford his/her taxes, the town will eventually place a lien on the property and it will go up for bid.
Get it?
When times were good the cost of government was of no concern. Now that times are tough all over and outside revenue is being decreased the size of government needs to stay the same and all anyone has to do is raise taxes to support that. When actually what should be done is that you need to shrink your operations right along with the reduction in revenue till you can survive and still provide the basic services required. The communities that still have not done this are the ones that are suffering. State government is doing exactly this so it makes sense that the municipalities do the same thing. Maybe instead of taking from your rainy day fund you should have started cutting back on your services so when it came time for the hard decissions they would have been a little easier to swallow. There should be no reason to tax someone out of their home. Some day the well be dry then what do you do?
Lepage and the state budget are still facing hundreds of million of shortfall and HAVE to cut substantial aid and funding at the local level to make up for the difference. And like the article said, rising gas prices and inflation isn’t helping the local budget either, so an increase for the local taxes has to be boosted in order to combat the costs. I really don’t see how you can play the blame game for the state when they got their federal aid cut to make up the shortfall! It just didn’t appear from nowhere.
I really don’t see how YOU can buy everything that spews out of a liar’s cavernous mouth. If you insist on believing one thing Lepage says, then please consider buying my bridge in Brooklyn. You are one of the ones Lepage considers “easy” or a “sitting duck.”
Well hey. you and your neighbor can bunk up sweety
The burden always goes to taxpayers. Do you think the state, in this economy, has a bunch of money they aren’t telling us about? Blame LePage if it makes you feel better, but do you think the state would have more money if the dems were back in control (terrifying thought)?
If you really want to help your budget. You should really take a VERY close look at your police and fire department cost of operation. I see an aweful lot of new dual wheeled pick ups with nice new campers up there at the FD. For the amount of calls in the coarse of the year you could probally scale down the fulltimers and settle for partimers and volunteer department. Just a thought.
Most of the full time Fire Fighters work two jobs to pay for those “dual wheeled ” trucks. And a Dump turck driver makes more money per hour than a Parmedic. Pinch your own dollars.
HaHa. I’ld work two jobs too if I could get paid for 24 hours on (which may include six hours of work) and have two days off. Which may times you drive by the FD and those guys working their 24 hours on are washing their wives cars. Knock your FD to half it’s size and fill in with vol. firefighters. Pinch dollars this is
Sure you would, nm. Only problem is these people are quite bright and have a far better command of their own language, so you would never measure up to their caliber. And that is not even taking into consideration their dedication, something else you lack.
Almost every day I read about or hear on a news media of some sort about at least one city or town in Maine that is trying to figure a way to cut costs. most of the time these cities or towns are cutting back on anything thats not absolutely needed.such as, I just heard that Presque-Isle is trying to cut back costs in an attempt to keep their mill rate down.
One thing is for sure,I have never heard anything about the town of Houlton ever trying to come up with a way to cut costs or save money.tax and spend seems to be the motto of the town council.
As a result of the newest tax increase,the town will be able to keep the Miller hockey arena setting empty for at least six months out of the year and still pay bernie his full time wages and benifits,still be able to keep the fleet of fire trucks and firefighters big enough to service the city of Brewer,police dept has about five more officers than it needs but they are hiring one more just in case,and we have to keep that new tourist information center staffed.on and on it goes.
Houlton can’t seem to attract any new jobs to the area,other than retail stores like tractor supply.then they wonder why the town did’nt make the list of “one of the best towns in Maine to start a business”! drive down any street in town and you will find at least one house for sale and usually there are many houses are for sale.
Your doing a great job Houlton town council.