BANGOR, Maine — Without municipal spending cuts, Bangor city officials project the governor’s budget proposal for fiscal 2016 will result in a total property tax rate increase of $1.25 as expenses continue to shift from the state to local municipalities.
Because the city budget remains incomplete — and the Legislature remains deadlocked over the governor’s budget proposal — it remains unclear how much of an increase local property owners may face in the coming tax year.
According to projections the city provided school officials for budget planning purposes, the governor’s planned cuts to revenue sharing would shift to the city expenses equivalent to $1 in the local mill rate.
The city also projects that proposals to cut state funding for mandatory general assistance programs in Bangor would add another 25 cents to the mill rate.
That comes in addition to the 15-cent increase proposed in Bangor City Schools Superintendent Betsy Webb’s budget, which she introduced to the school board last last month, for a total possible tax increase of $1.40. Bangor’s current mill rate is $21.80.
Asked about the projections Thursday, City Manager Cathy Conlow said, as she continued budget planning meetings, that she will not present to the council a budget proposal that includes that level of property tax increase.
“There’s no way that it’s going to be a dollar. I just don’t see the council going for that,” she said. Instead, Conlow said, city officials are working to pare down the city’s spending to help mitigate the tax shift, though she was not sure what she would present to the council.
Meanwhile, City councilors Ben Sprague and Joe Baldacci said Thursday they have not yet seen any budget proposals for 2016, but they thought it unlikely there would be no tax increase. With spending cuts looming, they also expressed concern that there may not be much left to cut.
“I would be lying if I said that it wasn’t beginning to take a toll on the delivery of city services,” Sprague said.
Some services simply can’t be cut, he said, adding “nobody wants to cut public services when there is a pothole on almost every street in town.”
After a shift of expenses equivalent to $4.03 in the mill rate from the state to the city for fiscal 2015, the city cut staff and services to reduce the shift to $2.40, according to data provided by the school department.
Conlow said over the past four years the city has laid off 55 people, or 41.25 full-time equivalent staff. Some of the employees were part-time. Last year, city layoffs affected nine people or 7.5 full-time equivalent staff. City councilor Josh Plourde predicted a balancing game this year between the services expected by residents and the amount they’re willing to pay for them.
“The trend that we’re seeing is that a lot of people have a lot of expectations about what services the city should provide for them, but nobody want to pay for those services,” he said.
City councilor Pauline Civiello proposed consolidating multiple cities’ economic development activities to the county level as a way to reduce costs, sharing staff expenses between towns and working regionally instead of individually.
“We just talked about the national park being important to Bangor. Well, what a way to prove it by all working together under one funding source,” she said.
Baldacci said he expects the budget proposal to go to the council the week of April 13.
Follow Evan Belanger on Twitter at @evanbelanger.