Bangor council aims to lower tax rate Officials consider cuts from public library, parks at special budget workshop

BANGOR -Bangor City Council members have proposed lowering the city’s tax rate to less than $24 per $1,000 valuation by cutting funding to the Bangor Public Library, eliminating supervision at some parks and playgrounds and cutting funding for the public works department.

At a special council workshop Thursday, City Manager Edward Barrett introduced a proposal with three levels of reductions that would save money for Bangor. If all three levels of the proposal are accepted, the city could save $767,646. However, only level one was accepted in its entirety, level two was examined on an item-by-item basis, and only two items of level three were accepted. All of the items will be presented and discussed again at future budget workshops.

If all the proposed cuts had been accepted, the tax rate would have been lowered to $23.49. After considerable debate, however, the rate was temporarily set at $23.70.

Under the plan proposed Thursday, Bangor Public Library’s funds would be cut by $21,141. Also, Broadway Park and other city parks would be without a supervisor on duty and $12,000 would be cut from the public works department.

Mayor Michael Crowley stressed the difficulty of cutting costs, but stated that the council needs to make tough decisions now, rather than later.

“To bring the tax rate down to a reasonable level, this is not a huge amount of money,” Barrett said of the $275,190 saved by level one.

Level one reductions include scrapping a previously proposed repair project for parking lots on High and Exchange streets, reducing to $25,000 the amount available in the city’s General Fund Contingency Account, cutting $25,000 from the city’s sidewalk-paving program, and combining two positions in the Economic Development Division into one.

Council members reviewed the second group of proposed cuts item by item, selecting only those reductions that a majority of the group favored. Included in level two cuts is the removal of supervisors from two Bangor parks and playgrounds that seem underused, an elimination of the city’s AfterRec program, and a decision not to raise the amount the city’s private schools receive from the city. The AfterRec program provides after-school activities for elementary school children.

Crowley expressed regret that some programs must be cut, but also stated that Bangor’s parks and playgrounds aren’t being used as frequently as in past years.

“Every program has come about with good intentions,” he said, “but things change.”

Councilman Frank Farrington applauded the group’s efforts to examine every facet of the budget before voting to accept it.

“I like that we’re seeing what costs we can take out without making future costs greater,” he said.

The council proposed cutting some funds from the Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, the 4th of July Corp., the Penobscot Theatre, the East-West Highway Association, and Camp Bangor in the third and final set of proposed cuts.

Additional cuts proposed in public works and the fire and police departments were not made.