BUCKSPORT – Town councilors on Thursday approved a $17 million budget for the coming year, including a modified $12 million school budget.
Overall, the budget represents a 2.01 percent increase from the current budget, or a total of $342,896. The school budget, which the school committee trimmed earlier this month after an initial review by the council, totaled $12,102,497, an increase of $233,363 or 2.97 percent.
Town Manager Roger Raymond noted that the total budget increase is almost the exact amount of anticipated increases in heating oil and diesel.
The school budget garnered most of the discussion at Thursday’s council meeting. While some councilors advocated for additional cuts in the budget, the only changes they made was to transfer funds from several accounts into the accounts for heating oil and fuel.
The council transferred $20,000 from the account for regular instruction and $5,000 each from special education, student and staff support, system administration, and school administration accounts into two accounts. Of that $40,000 total, $10,000 went to the transportation and buses accounts for diesel, and $30,000 went into the facilities maintenance account for heating oil.
Councilors questioned some of the items in the budget, including new positions funded for the coming year. Councilor Jeff Robinson expressed concern about the increasing costs of energy and how the possible Millinocket mill closure might affect the Verso Paper mill in town.
“Right now is not the time. We don’t know what’s going to happen in the next couple of years,” he said. “Those salaries are not a one-time thing. They’re going to go up every year.”
Superintendent of Schools Judy Lucarelli noted that the school committee had balanced the addition of new positions by reducing other jobs throughout the department.
“We didn’t add a position without looking at reducing a position to cover that,” she said. “We did look very carefully at that. The position count overall is down.”
The municipal portion of the budget, which covers the remaining town departments, totaled $5,265,376, an increase of $109,533 or 2.12 percent.
Based on the total budget, the amount to be raised from taxes for the coming year will be $8,115,405, an increase of $85,860 or 1.06 percent.
According to Raymond, new valuations in town should cover that increase, although he warned that did not necessarily mean that no taxpayers would see an increase in their tax bills. The tax rate is not expected to change, but, because of the new valuations on town properties now in place, some property owners will see their tax bills decrease, while others will experience an increase.
The budget adopted by the council will be presented to voters for their approval in a referendum vote during the primary elections on June 10.
rhewitt@bangordailynews.net
667-9394
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