Council holds the line at 1.4-mil increase

CARIBOU, Maine — Four of six councilors are staunchly against a mil increase that surpasses 1.4 mils, which led the council to reject the proposed income budget during their April 14 meeting.
“I supported a budget that the council approved in December with a 1.4-mil increase, and I hate to see the line moving in the sand all the time,” Councilor David Martin said. “I’m saying that’s all I’m going to support, so if there are other councilors who feel like I do, you should probably be thinking about making cuts if you need to.”
City Manager Austin Bleess emphasized that it was still too early to discuss an accurate mil rate for 2014 as there are too many variables, but he cautioned the council of adopting a budget with less than $49,028 overlay.
The proposed income budget had a tentative mil rate of 22.3 with an overlay of $86,173 — but that four tenths of a mil was higher than the majority of councilors wanted to go.
Doing some quick math, Councilor Philip McDonough II estimated that the 1.8-mil increase would affect his two properties by an additional $171. Clarifying that he could afford the increase, he was quick to point out that some people out there could not.
“And if we continue to climb, what are those poor people going to do? I don’t even know how they heat their houses sometimes,” McDonough added.
Councilor Joan Theriault agreed to stay at the 1.4 increase, adding that she knew the council would have to make cuts somewhere, “but we can’t keep raising.”
Councilor Shane McDougall agreed with Martin, McDonough and Theriault — but he didn’t see any easy cuts in the budget, either.
“I’m still new in the game, but I look through the expense budget and to me, coming in fresh, it looks like we’ve cut about as much as we can,” he said. “Another $50,000 or $100,000 maybe, but in a $9 (million) some odd budget, that doesn’t amount to a whole lot,” McDougall added, commenting that the council is looking at making some difficult decisions, dropping some items that probably wont be popular in the community.
Mayor Gary Aiken estimated that staying at a 1.4-mil increase probably meant cutting approximately $130,000 from the budget, and Bleess cautioned the council against approving the income budget if they planned to make foreseeable changes to it.
Councilor Kenneth Murchison told the board that he wasn’t stuck on the 1.4-mil number; rather he wanted to work toward making the best budget, and councilor David Genthner agreed.
The council also discussed potentially charging a service fee for the owner of tax-exempt residential property that is used to provide rental income — excluding student housing, parsonages and property owned by the Aroostook Band of Micmacs.
Bleess explained that there are some restrictions the city would have to abide by, including not charging a service fee that exceeded 2 percent of the annual gross revenue of the institution or organization.
Such facilities in Caribou that could have a service charge imposed on them include Caribou Gardens, Central Aroostook Association, Facilities Inc. and Rose Acres.
“We should also point out that Caribou Gardens already does this, they pay a PILOT, which is 2 percent of their gross revenues already,” Bleess described.
Excluding Caribou Gardens, those facilities total about $4,729,100 in valuation that is not taxed.
“I’ve been an advocate for these service fees, however, when I look at this list of businesses, I think we should be very careful going forward,” Murchison said. “These institutions all involve elderly people, low-income people and others, and certainly the 2 percent fee would be passed onto the clientele I would think.”
The subject is slated for a public hearing at the next meeting of the Caribou City Council on Monday, April 28 starting at 7 p.m. in the Councilors’ chambers.
A public hearing will also be held regarding the abandonment of an unusable street on that night. The council also addressed the resignation of Jeff Michaud from the planning board by appointing Phillip McDonough III to the planning board. Councilor Phillip McDonough II abstained from the vote.