MAPLETON, Maine — The shared government of Castle Hill, Chapman and Mapleton is starting its annual budget process and looking at the potential for property tax decreases in at least two out of the three towns.
While a number of areas of the budget are increasing, other areas being flat or falling would help ebb out the projected spending, said Jon Frederick, town manager for the three municipalities, which operate under an interlocal agreement. “We’ve got some good breaks,” Frederick said about the town’s projected expenses.
In the proposed 2017 budget, municipal appropriations are down 5.7 percent for Mapleton, 5.5 percent for Castle Hill and 4.7 percent for Chapman, while revenues increased for Mapleton and Castle Hill, but not Chapman.
Under those numbers and based on projections for the county and school district’s budgets, Mapleton’s mill rate would be down 0.3 percent to $15.4 per $1,000 of property value, Castle Hill’s would be down 0.5 percent, to $14.8, and Chapman’s would increase 0.6 percent to $14.9.
The municipal tax rate is calculated in July, and Frederick emphasized that the projected mill rates are “merely an estimate for the purpose of gauging this proposed budget.”
The towns’ budget projects that the county tax would increase 5 percent while the school district’s impact would increase $200,000 for all of its five communities. Maine School Administrative District 1 is “working for a level budget” without significant increases, according to the towns’ budget outline.
SAD 1 accounts for 76 percent of the tax levy in the three towns’ proposed 2017 budget, while the municipal government accounts for 16 percent and the county government 8 percent.
Last year, as voters rejected two SAD 1 budgets in a process that stretched well past July, Mapleton, Castle Hill and Chapman set their taxes based on a school budget that did not pass, with what turned out to be an over-assessment. Those additional tax monies will now be used against the 2017 tax commitment for the school district, Frederick said.
Frederick said the most significant change in the towns’ budget could actually be a change that happened down the road in Presque Isle, where the city council abolished the city’s pay-as-you-throw trash program effective April 1.
The change means the end of curbside trash pickup in three towns and reducing the funding by $107,730. That’s a drop in the towns’ budgets, but it means “everybody’s going to be on their own,” either hiring a trash hauler or taking trash themselves to the Presque Isle Landfill.
Another change stems from the voter-approved minimum wage increase, which will mean the towns’ Recreation Department will increase wages for pool lifeguards and other staff to $9 per hour, increasing the recreation portion of the budget by 16 percent, or $7,675.
As is common in many municipalities, the towns’ costs for health insurance for municipal employees increased by double digits — 11.2 percent. But that was partially offset with more affordable rates for general liability and property insurance and workers’ compensation and unemployment insurance. Workers’ compensation is down in part due to the towns’ participation in the public-sector work safety program known as SHAPE.
The towns share the costs of a number of services, including roadways, based on proportional calculations. For the town’s road budget, spending per town is calculated based on the percentage of road miles in relation to the total for all three towns. Cost sharing for other joint budget appropriations is based on 70 percent of each town’s population and 30 percent of each town’s state valuation.
The towns’ joint select board has approved the joint budget shared by the towns, representing 80 percent of the municipal spending, and the individual select boards will be voting on the budgets in February. Town residents will then vote on the budgets at their annual town meetings. Mapleton’s is scheduled for March 20, Castle Hill’s March 21 and Chapman’s March 27.
