BREWER – If you want to talk about frightening numbers, try looking at the projected cuts the city would need to make if the proposed Palesky tax cap passes, City Manager Steve Bost said Wednesday.

“It’s not a scare tactic,” he insisted.

If voters pass the tax cap initiative Nov. 2, both the fire and police departments would be cut in half and could expect to lose 10 employees each, according to city officials.

“It’s going to be nearly impossible” to run the department, acting Police Chief Dan Green said Friday. “However, [with] however many people that are left here, we will do the best we can.

“We will have to learn to prioritize because we won’t have enough people to answer the calls,” he said.

The Police Department receives between 600 and 700 calls every month for assistance. Under the tax cap and with reduced number of employees, the department would go to emergency calls first and then would respond to other nonemergency-type calls.

“The Police Department will not cease to exist,” Green said. “And those of us remaining here will continue to do what we do – it just won’t be done as quickly as before.”

It’s a similar situation for the Fire Department, Fire Chief Richard Bronson said.

“Under the tax cap we would reduce the number of personnel on duty at any given time by as many as three personnel,” he said in a letter to the city.

The fire chief said any cuts to staff would result in longer wait times once fire calls are received.

Under the Palesky tax cap, which would cap property taxes at 1 percent, or $10 per $1,000 of assessed property value for residents and businesses, Brewer’s $24 million combined municipal and school budget would be reduced by $6.3 million, city officials are saying.

Out of 95 employees, the city is projecting 38 would be given pink slips because of reduced operating revenues under Palesky, Bost said.

“Some departments are going to be hit harder than others depending on what the City Council and residents decide are important,” Finance Director Karen Fussell said recently.

If the tax cap passes, the council would hold a public meeting to get comment from residents about what services to cut, she said.

Along with law enforcement and firefighters cuts, also on the chopping block are eight administrative staff members, four public works employees, three from the parks and recreation department and one from the health and human services department. The Brewer Public Library, which employs four people, would be reduced to 2 people.

This year, the school’s budget is nearly $14.5 million and the city’s is nearly $10 million. The projected cuts to employees are so large because personnel make up a majority of budget costs, officials said.

For example, this year’s Fire Department budget totaled $806,158, with $696,566 for salaries and benefits. Bronson said there is nothing left to cut but employees.

The Brewer School Department figures are just as frightening to officials with the schools looking at elimination 29 percent of employees, Superintendent Betsy Webb said Wednesday.

Under Palesky, the school department would lose more than $3.3 million, or approximately 23 percent of its budget, according to city figures.

“We would estimate that up to 64 positions” would be cut, Webb said. There are 258 employees in the school department.

Cuts would have a severe impact on all departments, but individual positions have not been specified, she said.

“It will absolutely handicap us,” Webb said. “You would see fewer services. You would see larger teacher-to-student ratios. You would see basically a core program with academics being offered to students.”

The school department might have to delay repairs and upgrades at the six school buildings and hold off on making purchases for equipment, Webb said. That would mean “fewer opportunities for students to grow and develop,” she said.

One factor that has not been taken into consideration is the passage of the June 8 referendum Question 1, which requires the state to fully fund 55 percent of education to reduce property taxes.

A law passed in 1984 by the Legislature recommends the state fund 55 percent of the cost of education, but the state has never hit that mark and this year paid for only about 43 percent of education costs, with the remainder coming locally through property taxes.

The additional funds, made available through the referendum, should be available July 1, 2005, but neither the city nor the school has heard anything from the state about how the funds will be allocated or distributed, the finance director said.

“We have absolutely no indication for the state what those funds will be,” Fussell said.

Without knowing what the additional educational funds will be, the Palesky projections are all based on this year’s valuations calculated at the 1 percent cap, the finance director said.