ROCKLAND – Nearing the end of Monday’s City Council session things were getting uncomfortable.

In the wake of the June 13 repeal of a pay-as-you-throw trash disposal program, the council was attempting to trim its 2007 draft budget to adjust to the loss of $500,000 in anticipated revenues from the fee program.

“I’m not willing to cut any more,” Councilor Eric Hebert said. “I think we’ve cut enough.”

“We’ve gone as far as we can go without affecting basic operations,” Mayor Brian Harden said.

“The next step is to cut into programs and services,” City Manager Tom Hall said, after the council had trimmed $271,105 from the budget, which would result in a 2.28 percent increase in the tax burden.

Before the councilors deliberated, two residents commented on the pay-as-you-throw defeat.

James Thompson said he hopes the solid waste facility will be operated efficiently with available funds, rather than passing on the resulting revenue loss to taxpayers. Sandra Schramm agreed and urged that a full council consider the budget adjustments.

Councilor Adele Grossman Faber was excused from Monday’s meeting.

When the council dug in, the first swing of the ax was to solid waste appropriations. A $25,000 line for odor control abatement was eliminated; as was $77,430 for capital equipment reserve; $50,505 for equipment maintenance reserve; and more. Actually, little funding remained in the solid waste appropriations account when councilors moved on to the discretionary appropriations account.

The balancing act was in trying to adjust for the $500,000 revenue loss without exceeding a “growth limitation factor” established by LD 1. Under the cap formula, Rockland’s 2007 budget may not exceed last year’s budget by more than 4.56 percent. However, a provision allows the council to approve a resolve to push the budget higher for special reasons.

In light of the repeal and before reductions were made, the city’s budget is $565,770 greater than last year, which exceeds the LD 1 cap by $318,513.

One issue is the 2007 increase in fixed costs – $319,319 – already is higher than the allowed cap, Hall said.

Last week, councilors approved, in first reading, domestic partner insurance for its employees for which $28,000 was budgeted. All four councilors agreed the city could no longer afford that coverage this year.

A boiler for the library building and a fire alarm system for the recreation building survived the cuts.

The city manager reminded councilors more than once that “in some respects we are putting off the inevitable.” Too many cuts would make it “doubly difficult” in developing next year’s budget, he said.

The council turned to boosting revenues rather than making deeper cuts.

Increases in mooring and docking fees, grant administering revenues and commercial hauler licenses for the transfer station were discussed.

The latter proposal is to hike local hauler licenses from $50 to $1,000 and nonlocal hauler licenses from $250 to $2,000.

Councilor Carol Maines suggested fines for haulers who dump recyclables, which might provide an incentive to work out a recycling plan with customers.

Another $13,608 in savings came from agreeing not to fill three employee vacancies until Aug. 1 – solid waste director, library technician and public works light equipment operator.

The council was still working on the budget late Monday and plans to present the draft at a public hearing Monday and for final reading. A resolve to authorize exceeding the LD 1 cap will also be prepared for possible consideration.