Van Buren budget crisis prompts town meeting

VAN BUREN – A special town meeting has been scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 19, to iron out the voter-approved municipal budget which came in higher than the state-imposed tax limit.

In June’s annual town meeting voters approved a budget of $1,424,939 that was $205,000 higher than the state imposed property tax levy brought in two years ago by the approval of LD 1, the proposal to increase funding for education.

Local officials and residents didn’t know at the annual town meeting, and residents turned down a proposal to allow the town to go over the tax levy limit.

The error was discovered last month when final figures were tallied for state reports.

The error was discovered after the Town Council agreed to raise property taxes by 3.25 mills to fund the approved budget. The tax increase has since been rescinded.

Town Manager Larry Cote has been working on finding cuts in the budget.

His proposals, also approved by the Town Council, are in the warrant for the Sept. 19 meeting.

The town meeting could be short. Residents could approve raising the property tax levy limit and the town meeting could adjourn. That item is the second article on the warrant.

If not approved, residents will have to plow through 31 articles which look to cut money from municipal accounts. Some of the examples are $39,000 from the capital equipment reserve, $7,300 from general government, $3,000 from the police department, $5,000 from the fire department, $7,000 from public works, nearly $4,500 from solid waste disposal, $3,000 from recreation, $2,200 from economic development, $3,000 from general assistance, $1,450 from risk management, $1,500 from animal control, $40,000 from resurfacing of roads, $11,00 from unclassified accounts, and more than $11,000 from citizens’ programs.

They could wipe out the employee education incentive program now funded with $3,000.

Town Manager Larry Cote has said the cuts will hurt, because the town has been cutting for years. He said it was the consensus of department supervisors that the cuts will make it hard.

Cote said his proposals do not include job cuts, but he is not sure about all services residents have become accustomed to over the years.

“We need to do more with less,” he said. “We have to keep the town going, and hopefully we won’t have to cut services.

“This tightens the municipal belt to the last notch,” he said. “We’ve been tightening for the 11 years I have been here, and I find it very hard to cut anymore.”

Cote said budget problems actually started last year when residents agreed to use $200,000 of surplus money to keep taxes down. He said the Town Council and residents were told the move could bite them in future years, and it has.