CARIBOU, Maine — Caribou will hold a public hearing on the 2021 municipal budget at 6 p.m. Monday, March 15, in the Caribou Wellness and Recreation Center gymnasium on 55 Bennett Drive, to discuss the proposed 2021 budget.
Caribou City Council set the date for the meeting during a Feb. 26 budget meeting, in which Caribou City Manager Dennis Marker outlined the year’s budget proposal.
Marker said during a Feb. 22 council meeting that while last year’s budget was based on a 24.5 mill rate, the city ultimately dropped the rate to 23.55. This year’s revenue budget is also based on the assumption of a 24.5 mill rate.
If this year’s budget is based on the 24.5 mill rate, he said last Monday that the city would need to cut an additional $640,000 from operation and capital expenses in order to avoid a tax increase. Marker said this does not take into account potential increases from the county and the RSU 39 school district. If they make additional increases, more cuts would need to be made in order to keep the city tax rate flat.
“I know that among the council there’s divided opinions about holding the mill rate exactly where it was this year and providing some allowance for the school and county if they have any increases, but not raising any more than that,” Marker said on Friday. “And that others want to get [the budget] where we need to be and make sure we’re covering our costs.”
He said the proposed budget takes both of these opinions into account and establishes a balance between the two options.
The proposed 2021 budget would be $223,000 less than the 2020 budget, and also below the city’s actual expenses for 2019. It assumes the school would see a 2 percent increase and the county would see a 5.95 percent increase in their budgets and, even with these increases factored in, would result in an approximate one half mill increase overall.
He said that while the county’s projected increase is essentially locked in, the RSU 39 budget may be flat this year as they are anticipating additional federal COVID-19 relief funding.
“They’re hoping they will be able to leverage all these funds coming to them and be able to hold their budget this year,” Marker said. “If that’s the case then certainly we’re not going to need a full half mill increase in the budget this year.”
Some cuts made to this budget include eliminating $10,000 that was to be put away for a major project at the airport. Marker said the city needs to put away roughly $30,000 in total for this project by 2023.
Two new positions — a grant writer and a public works official who would specialize in fleet management — were also removed. Each of these positions would have cost roughly $40,000 annually, and Marker said they likely would not have been hired until about halfway through the year.
Any residents interested in commenting on the budget can do so at the meeting in person, or submit comments to the city clerk at dbrissette@cariboumaine.org before 4:30 p.m. on March 15 with their name and address included.
