OLD TOWN, Maine — Much is still up in the air for town leaders trying to wrestle with the 2015-16 budget amidst a requested Expera Old Town mill abatement and unrest in Augusta, Town Manager Bill Mayo said after Wednesday’s Special City Council meeting.
“We are assuming at least a 25 million dollar loss on the mill value,” Mayo said. “We should have the [new mill property assessment] numbers by mid-week.
“The state may have additional funding for schools if the legislature holds together on the governor’s veto,” Mayo said in a Wednesday email of the city’s proposed $16.5 million budget. “This is still quite fluid at this point.”
Expera Specialty Solutions, based in Kaukauna, Wisconsin, acquired the assets of the former Old Town Fuel & Fiber pulp mill on Dec. 5 during bankruptcy proceedings in U.S. District Court in Bangor, and it formally submitted an appeal in mid-March for a $43.7 million, or 85 percent, reduction of the town’s current assessment of slightly more than $51 million.
Travis Roy, city assessor, denied the company’s abatement request.
”We are working with an industrial appraiser to get a good accurate value for the mill going forward,” Roy said. “The appeal is still viable and can be taken to the local board of assessment review, if the company is not happy with the outcome of the current appraisal work being done.”
With the projected decrease in revenues of about a quarter of a million, town leaders held the special meeting to discuss how to move forward and also manage the property tax rate increase, Mayo said.
“They want the total increase to the mill rate to be 5 percent,” the town manager said.
Councilor Linda McLeod said the 5 percent property tax increase is just the beginning.
“It’s not the best, but it’s not the worst,” she said. “The worst is yet to come.”
The city’s current property tax rate is $20.21 per $1,000 of valuation.
To decrease the projected mill rate increase, which at points reached as high as 9 percent with the projected decrease in mill property taxes, councilors decided to cut $70,000 from police, fire and public works, and to tap the heavy equipment reserve account. They also talked about the recreation department and the pool but decided to maintain those until next year, when they will be placed on the chopping block.
“We’ll be back here again,” McLeod said.
Expera spokeswoman Addie Teeter said when the abatement request was filed that the current assessment is more than five times what the company paid.
The good news is that the city received an unexpected $305,000 as part of the federal funds to renovate Dewitt Field, Mayo said.
“That helps to offset [the projected increase],” the town manager said.
At the end of the meeting, councilors also discussed 28 Shirley St., which is located between the town office and the library and is for sale for $27,900, and a donation from Wells Fargo for a property at 61 Sixth St. The city decided to accept the donation and to keep an eye on the Shirley Street property, which Code Enforcement Officer David Russell described as “a cat house” that is “in very poor shape,” in order to demolish the building possibly for a pocket park or parking lot.