Services for Somalis account for 0.5% of Lewiston budget

LEWISTON – The mayor said the city is “maxed out” financially by costs related to immigration and refugee resettlement, but those costs will account for only about $23 of next year’s average property tax bill.

Mayor Larry Raymond this week declined to offer insight into the financial burden on the city. “I’m not a numbers guy,” he said, adding that he believes city officials have handled the influx well.

“I was commenting that we had put a tremendous amount of effort into this,” Raymond said. “We are at a point where we need time to deal with the people that have arrived before others begin arriving.”

According to City Hall figures, the owner of a home worth $80,000 will pay $2,391 in taxes for the year, with $23.19 of that going toward immigration and refugee costs. Overall, services such as General Assistance and English as a Second Language amount to about 0.5 percent of the city’s $69 million budget.