Kicking PAYT trash to curb
PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — With some reluctance, a lot of discussion and pledges to save money next year, Presque Isle City Council passed a 2017 municipal budget with a 1 percent tax increase.
Since earlier this fall, city councilors staff have shaved more than $300,000 off a budget proposed by the city manager, and on Monday, Dec. 12, they were aiming to find another $142,000 to cut. After years of tax increases and a twice-rejected school budget last summer, leaders said they wanted to keep the municipal budget at the same rate as last year, but faced a number of challenges in the spending area that were out of reach.
Unable to agree on ways to cut that last $142,000, the council voted 5-2 to pass the 2017 municipal budget with spending of $13.4 million and a tax committment of 1.04 percent more than last year’s (not including the county and school district taxes to come next summer). Council Chair Emily Smith and councillor Leigh Smith voted against adopting the budget.
Before voting on the budget, council members discussed a variety of ideas to save money in the budget, including deferring some annual road repavement, phasing out administrative assistant jobs in certain city departments and ending the pay-as-you-throw trash disposal program, which costs the city about $140,000 each year.
Before adopting the budget, the council agreed to eliminate the trash portion of the PAYT program starting April 1, which is expected to save $40,000 from the budget next year and address resident complaints about the trash bag program. Starting fresh in January, they also said they wanted to discuss more ideas that could save money or raise revenue, such as renting out city-owned parking spaces around downtown and taking over street lights that are currently rented from Emera Maine.
A number of councilors expressed frustration with the budget always rising — employee insurance costs, for instance are up 11 percent — but said there is hope about new revenue.
City Manager Martin Puckett noted that Maine legislators are promising to help address property taxes with more state revenue sharing, while the city of Presque Isle is embarking on starting its own emergency medical service in April. The city-operated emergency service is expected to come with the potential of revenue from health insurance reimbursement, particularly for transferring patients between facilities, Puckett said.
Leigh Smith he hopes next year will bring more revenue and that the council will take a firm stance on not raising taxes or evening lowering them.
“Next year if we’ve got some decent revenue from EMS and we’ve got some revenue sharing, I think it’s important that we have as much of a struggle in the budget process — so that we hold it or bring it down,” he said. “We can’t sit back and say, ‘Oh, We’ve got more money, let’s go and spend it.’”
