Event gives voice to Calais candidates Among their concerns: tax cap, tourism

CALAIS – For 90 minutes, mayoral and City Council candidates were on the hot seat Tuesday night fielding questions from the media, the public and each other.

It was all part of Candidates Night sponsored by the Bangor Daily News, the Calais Advertiser, the DownEast Times and WQDY-FM in cooperation with Golden Touch Video Productions of Baileyville. GTVP owner Paul Storey recorded the event for future broadcast over local access Channel 10.

Mayoral candidates Judy Alexander, Vinton Cassidy and Nancy Gillis and council contenders Chris Bernardini, Alan Dwelley and G. Cecil Moreside skillfully maneuvered through myriad questions.

Candidates began with a two-minute opening statement, at which time they identified some of the issues in the city and explained what special qualities they had to be elected either to the City Council or to the mayor’s post. They also offered potential solutions to some of those issues.

Foremost on everyone’s mind was the Palesky tax cap initiative.

If passed on Nov. 2, city officials said it would gut the city’s budget and lead to layoffs.

A citizen’s initiative led by Carol Palesky and the Maine Taxpayers Action Network seeks to cap property taxes at $10 for $1,000 of assessed value.

The city’s tax rate now is $27.95 per $1,000 of assessed value.

City officials would have to cut around $2 million from municipal and school budgets in order to balance the books.

The majority of the candidates said they opposed the tax cap but believed even if it was defeated it would still send a message to the Legislature in Augusta that people were fed up with high property taxes.

The group all seemed to favor establishing an Economic Development Committee that would direct its attention to bringing business into the city.

They also were asked what they would do to ensure tourists remained in the area once a third bridge was built northwest of the city’s downtown area.

Among the suggestions: Better signage as well as marketing strategies that would promote the city as a destination point and the placement of the city’s Tourist Information Bureau – now located downtown near the Ferry Point Bridge – at the mouth of the new bridge.