YORK, Maine — Harbor Board chairman David Webber was on the hot seat Thursday night, when Budget Committee members led by Michael Spencer told him the board was not paying its fair share of a proposed new harbormaster boat and said they wanted to see harbor usage fees increased to cover those costs.
That was one of several substantive issues raised at the meeting. Key among them, volunteer firefighters showed up en masse to seek an increase in funding of a new program to pay them minimum wage when they respond to fires. Their request received a friendly reception from the committee, which ultimately agreed to double the funding from $50,000 to $100,000.
While members might have been agreeable to the firefighters’ request, they took a more critical view of the Harbor Board and its contribution to the cost of operating and maintaining York Harbor. They intimated the boat was the immediate cause but that the board in general needed to become more of a revenue partner with taxpayers.
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The boat purchase is a capital expenditure, set at $56,250 with $5,000 annual payments on the debt. Initially, the board and town were going to split the cost evenly, but by the time the line item was put in the capital budget, the split was 75 percent town, 25 percent harbor board. Town Manager Steve Burns told the committee the board did not want to spend more.
“We always look for other revenue sources” besides the taxpayer, Spencer said. Parks and Recreation Department, among others, received a significant part of its budget from non-taxpayer revenue. “I’m not trying to be in your face, but the landscape has changed significantly.”
If the harbor usage fee was modestly raised, said committee chairman Nan Graves, “it’s not like, my gosh, nobody’s going to come to the harbor. You have an enormous waiting list for moorings. It just sounds like you don’t want to pay for this. There should be some parity. To expect taxpayers to support boaters in the harbor is not fair.”
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Webber quoted harbor ordinance language stating that user fees should be used “to manage, maintain and operate the harbors, ports, tidal waters and channels with the town of York.” He said a harbormaster boat is used not only in the harbor but to assist other agencies like the Coast Guard and the Village Fire Department water rescue team for ocean rescues. “All of these aren’t necessarily covered by harbor usage fees,” he said, adding he could support a 50/50 split, calling it “appropriate.”
But the Budget Committee was not buying the logic, saying the boat and harbor master himself are integral to the running of the harbor. Spencer said the harbor master, along with other part-time permanent employees, is scheduled to receive a substantial raise next year.
“I’m not balking at that,” Spencer said. “That’s separate from this. But we pay him. The people operating the boat are paid by the town. There needs to be some accommodation.”
At an earlier meeting, Graves said in Wells, boat owners pay a mooring fee of $250 plus $15 a foot. In York, the mooring fee is $30, plus $1.75 per foot for boats up to 49 feet and $2 a foot for those over 49 feet. “I’d like to see it closer to market rate before they ask the taxpayer for money,” she said.
Committee member Jim Smith is a mooring holder and said he would support an increase in fees. He said the board has much greater responsibility today than imagined when the harbor ordinance was passed, and fees should be raised to cover those duties.
“When the harbor has a need, it’s not unlike the town to step forward and provide substantial help,” he said, referencing the taxpayer-funded town dock 1 reconstruction as an example. “So to my way of thinking, if we’re able to unburden the taxpayer with the debt service on the boat, we should do that.”
The committee was in unanimous agreement that the board should pick up the entire cost of the boat. Webber said the board is meeting Feb. 6 and he will put it on the agenda. The committee wants to see some resolution to funding before the end of February when final budget figures must be set.