PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — The Presque Isle City Council approved its 2019 budget Monday night with an allocation that lowers the municipal tax rate by 0.52 mills, or about 2 percent.
The councilors approved the $13.31 million budget with revenues of $6.25 million and net spending of $7 million.
The budget reduces the city’s spending by $271,000 over last year, lowering the municipal tax rate from $25.84 per $1,000 of property value to $25.32.
The City Council has been meeting every week in December discussing funding priorities and opportunities to pare down the budget in an effort to avoid property tax increases.
City Manager Martin Puckett attributed the budget decreases to reduced expenses in certain departments, such as allocations for city employee travel.
Councillor Mike Chasse also credited the budget savings to public works efficiencies stemming from the merger of the Presque Isle Landfill with the Tri-Community Landfill.
“This is in large part due to the Tri-Community Landfill merger and us working with other entities within this region to do the same thing with less,” Chasse said. “I hope that this is just the beginning of finding many ways to economize and keep this budget as reasonable as we can.”
Before approving the budget Monday, the councilors finished considering funding requests from nongovernmental organizations.
The council approved reducing the annual amount given to the Central Aroostook Chamber of Commerce from $23,000 to $20,000. The council then allocated $2,500 to the American Red Cross and an additional $500 to cemeteries.
