HOULTON, Maine — During a Town Council meeting on Tuesday evening, Town Manager Eugene Conlogue let the group know that the budget he prepared wasn’t pretty.
The town has lost revenue from multiple sources, is dealing with skyrocketing expenses for items such as fuel oil, and is expecting its share of the SAD 29 school budget to increase.
The proposed budget is $9.7 million. The previous budget was $9.1 million. The proposed budget includes a number of capital projects such as upgrading the area tennis courts and installing computer upgrades. During the meeting, Conologue talked about the possibility of issuing a bond to help the town finance the work.
Conlogue told councilors during the hourlong meeting that he has only been working for the town for a little over a month, and that he made the budget a priority.
Conlogue said he expected ambulance revenues to be down $100,000 over last year, and state revenue sharing would be down $50,000. He added that he had scaled back the town’s Tax Increment Finance accounts. Tagged as an economic development device, TIF aims to enhance and entice investment in a specific portion of a town. Establishment of TIF zones helps stimulate economic development, guard or create jobs and encourage investment to bolster business growth. The proceeds from such activity can be used for development projects.
An ATV bridge that sees a lot of traffic in the summer must be fixed, said Conlogue, as it washed out.
At this point, the town has to wait for an estimate from SAD 29 on what they will have to contribute to education. Several councilors expressed fear that school costs would jack the municipal budget up even further.
The budget then will be sent to the board of budget review so that panel can accept or reduce it. The budget then will be voted on by the council.
Mr. Conlogue also told those of us on the council that he wasn’t presenting the proposed budget as anything final and expects it to look different when the process is complete. We will do everything in our power to try and avoid a tax increase for a second consecutive year, I’ve tried to sidestep things during the past 2 years which I felt were unnecessary expenses, just haven’t been able to muster enough support with the rest of the council.
How about an accounting of the SAD 29 finances to determine what surplus they have? It seems that the town always dips into their surplus to fund operations and keep taxes down and yet the school budget is a mandate without looking into what surplus funds that SAD 29 has that could be used to offset their budget.