One Last Cut at the Budget

A vote on a tax-cap referendum is still months away, but just the notion that the measure will be on the November ballot has prompted city officials to take unusual steps. Concerned that local residents will be more apt to vote for the tax cap if their property taxes have recently increased, Bangor city councilors are now reducing the city and school budgets. While holding the line on taxes may be admirable, it is unfortunate that city councilors are only now interested in reining in spending when faced with a drastic ballot question that will limit property taxes to 1 percent of a home’s assessed value.

After years of refusing to participate, Bangor city councilors are on the verge of having the city join the Penobscot County regional dispatch center to save money. This week, councilors cut more than $529,000 from their $71 million budget, which is up for a final vote Monday.

Furthering their attempts to keep Bangor taxpayers from seeing an increase in their tax bills, councilors also asked the school committee to pare back its budget. The committee rightly agreed to help with the munici-pal budget cutting, but this must be a one-time request.

Because of how they operate, school budgets must be prepared well in advance. Teachers, for example, can’t be hired days before the start of the school year. That is why for years, the Bangor superintendent has met with the city council’s budget committee early in the year to go over figures for the upcoming year. By April, the school committee and budget committee have typically finalized a budget for the next school year.

This year this was all done, but earlier this week, members of the city council unexpectedly asked the school committee to cut their budget. After a couple meetings, it was agreed Wednesday that $175,000 would be cut.

Superintendent Robert Ervin said such cuts won’t be easy but that the school committee was willing to help the city. He said he would go through the budget line by line and look for places to cut $500 or $1,000.

The situation may not be dire – a $35 million budget could probably absorb that cut – but the issue is less one of money than of timing. If city councilors were concerned about not raising taxes they should have sent that message much earlier, when budgets were being preparing – not when they were being considered for final approval.