E. Millinocket to see 26 percent drop in tax rate

EAST MILLINOCKET – Residents should see some significant savings due to the tax rate’s drop of 26 percent on Tuesday.

Selectmen voted unanimously for a mill rate of $17.38 per $1,000 of valuation, which was down from last year’s rate of $23.49. The new rate would mean a savings of $306 a year on a $50,000 home or a savings of $459 on a $75,000 home.

The selectmen will meet today to commit the tax rate and the bills should be mailed out by this weekend, according to Administrative Assistant Mary Morris. The first half will be due 30 days from today and the other half will be due in early February, she said.

The main reasons for the drop in the mill rate were the cuts made by school and town budgets, as well as the money saved from not having to put aside legal fees to fight the abatement issue with Great Northern Paper.

Last year, the budget included $550,000 in legal fees, and the year before, the amount was $375,000, she said. When the mill was sold to Brascan in April, the town negotiated with the company to end the abatement conflict, she said.

Additionally, the selectmen decided this year to take all money in the undesignated fund balance over $1 million and use it to bring down the mill rate. This year, the town had $1.4 million in its UDF balance, Morris said. This is the first time in recent years that such a practice has been used, she said.

During Tuesday’s meeting, a discussion was generated about how much of an overlay to have to cover errors, omissions or abatements in figuring the taxes. The same as last year, this year’s mill rate provides a $50,000 overlay, Morris said.

“It’s a safety net,” Morris said. “I think it’s reasonable to have the $50,000 there. If we don’t use it, it would lapse back into the undesignated fund balance.”

Because the town used less than $2,000 of the overlay last year, selectmen Chairman Clint Linscott was in favor of a smaller overlay than the $50,000. In a related issue, Selectmen James Jamo asked if the $50,000 in the overlay account could just be carried over instead of putting it back into the UDF balance. Morris said she would look into it.