Choice between cutting staff or raising taxes
CARIBOU, Maine — City Council held a public budget workshop during their Nov. 9, 2015 meeting, in which both councilors and the public discussed the difficult situation of either cutting city employees or raising next year’s taxes.
“While the city has great employees that pitch in and go the extra mile, I am worried if two more positions are eliminated there will be a severe negative impact on the rest of the staff,” said City Manager Austin Bleess. “I would hate for the city to lose any more good staff due to burnout from being understaffed, overworked, and underappreciated. If we are to reduce staff to have no tax increase I believe this will become a bigger problem for the city.”
Bleess also cited Caribou falling behind in compensation to city employees. To catch up, Bleess projected that in 2017 the city would have to put “$25,000 for Compensated Absences (up from $0 in 2016), $65,000 for Public Works Capital Reserve (up from $0 in 2016),” and “$54,000 additional in Public Works for asphalt.”
“With these things alone the 2017 budget would need to be up $144,000,” said Bleess. “That’s before we know any of the other fixed increases such as health insurance, property insurance, workers’ compensation, etc.
“With the state continuing to break its promise to the citizens of Maine and not fund Revenue Sharing, the city continues to face tough choices to which there is no easy answer,” the manager added.
Caribou resident Michael Quinlan said a few words regarding the city’s recent decision not to fund the Chamber of Commerce for the upcoming year.
“I called the Maine Chamber of Commerce and asked them how they handle [funding] throughout the other communities,” said Quinlan. “They didn’t really have a ready answer, but were gracious enough to send me a directory. I looked at 12 municipalities, and out of those 12, nine actually funded their Chamber of Commerce on some level, anywhere from $2,500 to $10,000 in various forms, such as membership dues or direct financing. Most did provide a place for their Chamber of Commerce to conduct business.
“Of the three that didn’t fund their Chamber, one had recently disbanded, one — I don’t think truly understood what I was asking for, so I think something was lost in translation, and the other one was the city of Bangor. Bangor was able to fund via membership.”
Quinlan claimed that a city which claims to be “Certified Business Friendly” is sending a mixed message when it does not fund its chamber.
“My only question to you as you go through this process,” concluded Quinlan, “is as you go about spending our dollars here in the city, what do you feel, in the coming budget, speaks to the fact that we are committed to being ‘Certified Business Friendly?’”
“I don’t think one is pertinent to the other,” said Caribou Mayor Gary Aiken. “First of all, the Chamber isn’t a business. Secondly, I think Caribou is very business friendly. A lot of time here is spent trying to track businesses. A lot of effort is put into it. I don’t think any business is approaching the chamber to come to Caribou. At least if they are, I’m certainly not aware of it.”
Mayor Aiken added the city does support its chamber “to the tune of $9,000” for phone bills, heat and power.
Councilor Shane McDougall said that, like Quinlan, he also called up a selection of municipalities and received similar feedback.
Councilor Phil McDonough II added that he had a different result when conducting similar research.
“I wasn’t fortunate enough to get a list from them,” said McDonough. “Basically, they told me they weren’t aware of any [communities that fund their Chamber]. The person I contacted told me they were all self-sufficient.”
“You have to ask the question the right way to get what you need,” said Quinlan. “It’s interesting. I had to go back and ask the question and work my way through and discover that the city supports its Chamber in some way, monetarily.”
“One would think that the big Chamber of Commerce in the sky would know that information already,” said McDonough, to which Quinlan agreed.
