ST. AGATHA – The St. Agatha budget committee and Board of Selectmen have voted unanimously to oppose the Palesky tax cap because the impact on the small community would be disastrous.

The votes were taken Sept. 23 after both boards studied and discussed information they received from PolicyOne Research of Portland, a firm hired by Citizens United To Protect Our Public Safety, School and Communities. St. Agatha is one of 10 communities in Maine to receive the information.

The property tax loss for the small northern Maine town of 802 people would be 43 percent of today’s actual tax commitment or $356,000.

The so-called Palesky proposal would cap property taxes at $10 per $1,000 of assessed value, based on 1996-1997 values. It also would limit assessment increases to 2 percent a year while the property’s ownership remains in a family.

Already, a Maine Supreme Judicial Court majority has said in an advisory opinion that at least part of the proposal – its provisions for establishing the value of property – would be unlawful.

In St. Agatha, that would be less than half the present property tax rate.

Town Manager Ryan Pelletier said Monday that the town would need to make huge service cuts and implement fees.

“The budget committee and Board of Selectmen felt strongly that rising property taxes in Maine in general is a problem, but felt this proposal will not benefit the town,” Pelletier said.

“For a small community like St. Agatha this proposal is just too severe,” he said. “It would be pretty much the end of town government in St. Agatha as we know it now.

“We could not offer services that would even be close to what we now have,” he said. “The revenues would be gone, and this is a best-case scenario.”

Pelletier said the impact study revealed the town would have to eliminate most of the services people have come to rely upon, including the ambulance service, Fire Department services, recreation department programs and public works, all of which are financed with property tax revenues. A senior citizens lunch program also would be eliminated or would have to be self-sustaining.

Other agencies, such as the Ste. Agatha Historical Society, Catholic Charities of Maine, The Aroostook County Action Program, the American Red Cross and a host of other regional entities would lose funding as well.

In addition, the town’s work force of six full-time employees would be reduced to a part-time town manager and part-time clerk.

Pelletier said streetlights would be turned off, and the town office would be open only two days a week.

Some of the programs might be saved if residents paid a service fee, per person or family, to fund the services.

He estimated that a recreation program would cost families $120 per child per year, and that the disposal of household trash would cost families another $240 per household each year.

“We would need to create fees for services to allow the town to operate,” Pelletier said. “Who really wins?”

“A proposed budget with cuts outlined is just so drastic that we would not survive as we know the town now,” he said.