MILLINOCKET, Maine — The town likely will need to reduce its spending by $1.5 million to $2 million next year to offset the loss of the Great Northern Paper Co. LLC paper mill last summer and maintain the town’s property tax rate, Town Manager Peggy Daigle says.
But how? To begin to tackle the question, the Town Council reviewed a presentation by Daigle on Wednesday, illustrating the town’s financial situation. Councilors said they also want to draw residents into the discussion as soon as possible.
“It’s crunch time. We need to look at all options,” Chairman Richard Angotti Jr. said Sunday.
“I thought her goals were realistic,” Councilor Michael Madore said of Daigle’s presentation.” I thought that even though some of the suggestions are definitely going to be painful to implement, they are fairly spot on as far as the direction town might have to take in order to keep the budget in line.”
“It’s a lot to think about,” Councilor Anita Mueller said. “It strikes me that we need to develop some goals to work on for this year, like consolidation or sharing of services with neighboring communities. I questioned in the meeting whether it is enough, but I don’t think we really have enough information to go on at this point.
“I think my concern is that I would like to take a hard look at revenue accounts to see if there are places there to grow revenue,” Mueller continued.
Assuming GNP pays its property taxes, the valuation of its property is scheduled to drop from $74.5 million in the last fiscal year, which ended June 30, 2014, to $47.66 million this year and $3.17 million, respectively, in the following fiscal year, Daigle’s presentation shows.
GNP was the town’s largest single taxpayer but experienced a dramatic drop in the valuation of its Katahdin Avenue industrial park when it scrapped its papermaking equipment there in June.
Town government budgets, meanwhile, have declined from $6.7 million in FY 2013-14 to $5.8 million this year. If Daigle’s cuts are adopted, they likely will drop the town government budget to $4.2 million next year and reduce the town’s 29.95 mill rate, she said.
Among Daigle’s suggestions for making the cuts necessary to maintain or slightly decrease the town’s property tax rate include the reduction of two firefighter positions, one part-time town office clerical post, and to leave open two police positions and any openings created by retirements or resignations in the fire department.
Daigle recommended contracting emergency medical service work with the East Millinocket Fire Department and privatizing all town airport operations for $1, her presentation indicates. She also recommended studying whether to eliminate all recreation department operations except snowmobile grant operations and six weeks of town pool operations in the summer.
The snowmobile grant administration is crucial to maintenance of region snowmobile trails, which are among the best in the country and the cornerstone of regional tourism business, officials have said.
All capital purchases and road repairs — except repairs state agencies would pay or help pay — also could be eliminated. All those cuts would be among those needed to create $873,000 in net budget reductions, Daigle’s proposal states.
“She didn’t pull any punches,” Madore said. “As manager, she didn’t try to flower it or minimize it. She explained it as it is with real numbers, and I think it all ties in to some of the things we heard from [others]. We have to approach this in a realistic manner, not with an idea that things will work out, or things will work themselves out this time.”
None of these proposals are likely to be acted on immediately, nor are they final, Angotti said.
“It’s a preview. Nothing more than that,” he said.
Councilors encouraged residents to examine Daigle’s presentation for themselves and give feedback on their financial priorities for the town. The council’s budget process usually begins in late February or March.