MADAWASKA, Maine – Madawaska officials approved a flat municipal budget Tuesday which may lead to a slight mill rate reduction, depending on the town’s valuation. The next step for the budget will be for citizens to approve it during an upcoming town meeting in June.
This budget includes a tax commitment of $8,146,900 — the same amount as last year.
Interim town manager Dan Foster said the budget does not take the town’s assessed value into consideration, as this will not be known until later this year. He said the budget will not require any additional money from taxpayers.
“There is a reasonable expectation that we could see some kind of a small decrease,” he said of this budget year’s mill rate. “We won’t know that until we find out what the actual valuation is.”
He said the town will meet with the assessor in August, and should set the mill rate in September.
The town set the mill rate to $25.40 per $1,000 of evaluated property last year. This was a $2.65 increase over the previous year’s rate of $22.76.
The town’s expense summary, which includes the entire municipal budget and estimated amounts for Madawaska’s share of county taxes and school expenses, is at $13,903,745. Total revenues are projected at $13,912,564, leaving a remaining $8,818 surplus.
Foster said the main factors in creating this budget were a combination of increased revenues and utilizing some of this fiscal year’s surplus.
Overall, the town spent about half a million dollars less than it had budgeted for the current fiscal year.
“That’s in a variety of accounts, but the biggest one is public works,” Foster said during a May 14 meeting. “That’s because we had a really light winter. It’s because we didn’t have full employment down there. So we’re looking at saving about $275,000 in that account.”
The town also cut two full-time staff positions at the public works department.
The department had several vacancies last year after the former director, along with two employees, quit in late November.
The town has since approved giving the remaining members each a $5 an hour raise. Madawaska hired a new public works director in early February, however he resigned two months later, citing personal reasons for his departure.
As of May 17, there are still two openings in the public works department, including the director role.
The recreation department also went from two full-time staff to one full time and one part-time employee.
In addition to approving the budget, residents at the upcoming town meeting can vote on solar and housing ordinances. The town meeting is set for June 25 at 6 p.m. at the Madawaska High School cafeteria. The school’s annual budget meeting is set for 6:30 pm. on May 28 at the Madawaska High School cafeteria.And the town’s municipal election is set for June 11 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Knights of Columbus Hall on Fox Street.
