MILLINOCKET – Residents Gerald Morrison and Carmie Brigalli took an opportunity Tuesday at the polls to build local support for withholding some of Katahdin Paper Co.’s tax increment financing benefits.

On Oct. 7, the Town Council removed a stipulation from its TIF agreement with the company that required Katahdin Paper to maintain a certain number of employees in order to recoup 85 percent of its $2.2 million property tax bill on new investments. With only a skeleton crew now employed there, the company can still receive roughly $1.9 million instead of the $1.1 million it would have received without the amendment.

That $800,000 tax break hasn’t been earned because the paper company has done little to start up the mill, Morrison said.

The petition at the polls read: “We, the undersigned registered voters of the Town of Millinocket, oppose a TIF for Katahdin Paper Co. for this tax year.”

A nonbinding, nonreferendum document, the petition was meant to send a clear message to the council that voters want to see something coming back before they keep giving, Morrison said. The petition had collected nearly 400 names by midday.

“The point is that the citizens don’t want to give them any tax breaks while things aren’t up and running,” Morrison said Tuesday, adding that it could be next spring before the company’s anticipated count of 150 employees restart the facility. “We don’t feel we owe them anything this year.”

The extra tax break afforded under the TIF amendment could be used to lower the tax rate by $2 per $1,000 of valuation, Morrison said. Town Manager Gene Conlogue confirmed the numbers but said that under the town charter, Tuesday’s petition couldn’t result in any action about the amendment. Under the charter, a person has 10 days from the council’s vote to circulate a petition contesting a council action, he said.

Morrison said the petitions would be put up in local stores and brought forward to the council when the town and the company proceed with future negotiations about the TIF agreement.