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Proposed budgets in Greater Bangor will be voted on by local councils in the coming weeks, and all are higher for next year than the one prior.
Hampden, Hermon, Old Town and Orono all have upcoming votes on their proposed budgets. Brewer is the only town to approve its budget for the next fiscal year.
Brewer approved a $19.4 million budget Tuesday. That’s a roughly 5% jump from last year, although the property tax rate for residents went down.
The proposed municipal budgets in Greater Bangor show that towns are investing in largely the same services, but the costs of those services have gone up. It’s unclear how these budget hikes will affect residents’ property taxes because tax rates are not yet set.
One year after Old Town cut two firefighter positions and raised taxes by 10%, the city has drafted a budget with a roughly $164,000 bump in expenses. Last year’s budget went down, but a loss in revenue from the closure of the Nine Dragons Paper mill caused taxes for the rest of the city to rise.
Property taxes for the upcoming fiscal year will grow by roughly 3%, councilor Zachary Wyles said during a June 1 council meeting. Although taxes are going up, the town is still delivering a slim budget, he said.
“I’m sure none of us are happy to deliver a mill rate increase onto the taxpayers of the town. I know [city staff] have done a lot of work, and I’m happy with where we’re at considering city operations have increased by .7%,” Wyles said.
Old Town, which had the smallest change in expenses of the five Greater Bangor proposed budgets, will hold a second reading of its budget on June 15.
Hermon’s expenses are set to spike the most of the communities.
A $2.1 million jump in municipal expenses is proposed in Hermon’s upcoming budget.
Higher wages and insurance are part of the cause, but a new fire truck has also added $370,000 to the budget. That cost will factor into the town’s next two budgets as well.
The need for a new fire truck has been debated during budget meetings, but Hermon Fire Chief Cody Sullivan said it’s necessary for the department to operate without maintenance costs in the future.
“We have played this game in Hermon since I’ve been a member of the Hermon Fire Department and I’ve never seen us benefit from ‘can this wait another year,’” Sullivan said during a June 1 council meeting.
Hermon residents will vote on the budget at an annual town meeting on June 11.
Orono’s proposed budget is up just 1% from last year.
Orono’s is a “status-quo budget,” Town Manager Clint Deschene said during a May 18 public hearing. The Town Council will vote on it June 8.
Orono is keeping services at their current level and not adding, Deschene said.
“We’re not trying to expand. So these increases are not about an expansion of services, it’s about sustaining the ones we have,” Deschene said in May.
The town has lost revenue sharing due to its property valuation going up and is seeing higher employee compensation, Deschene said, leading to larger expenses and fewer offsets.
Hampden’s proposed expenses jumped by more than half a million dollars. The changes, which equate to a roughly 5% increase, are also mostly seen in rising employee wages and insurance coverage.
Residents have not yet made public comments on the proposed budget, leading councilors to question if it will be supported.
“Nobody has had the chance to voice their feelings on it yet. I like the budget, but I don’t know if the people that elected me care for it very much,” Councilor Mark Cormier said during a June 1 meeting.
A public hearing will be held on June 15.