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AUGUSTA — Some last-minute corporate tax submissions and other budget changes have reduced the hit from the proposed city budget to taxpayers by more than half, while also allowing some items cut from the budget to be restored.

The $51.5 million city and school budget initially proposed by City Manager William Bridgeo in March, which was 2.3 percent higher than the current year’s budget, would have required a 3.5 percent property tax increase.

Now the increase to taxpayers is estimated to be about 1.5 percent.

Ralph St. Pierre, assistant city manager and finance director, said some local corporations submitted updated personal property tax assessments, primarily taxes on new business equipment, which boosted the city’s total assessed value in time for the money to help offset spending increases in this year’s budget.

St. Pierre said until the filings came in he wasn’t confident enough they would come in time, so he didn’t include them in the budget.

As proposed, the now $51.4 million budget would increase the tax rate from $17.30 to $17.55 for every $1,000 of property value. That would mean a tax increase of about $31 for the year for the owner of a $125,000 home in Augusta, from the current $2,163 to $2,194.

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That same homeowner, before the changes, would have been facing a $2,238 tax bill, a $75 increase.

Mayor William Stokes noted councilors were far from agreeing with each other when the proposal before them was a 3.5 percent tax increase. Councilors said a budget workshop last week was contentious.

After describing the new scenario and proposed 1.5 percent tax increase, Stokes asked councilors at a budget wrap-up session Thursday, “With this new information, do we have any consensus?”

Multiple councilors responded by nodding their heads at the non-voting meeting.

“Yep,” agreed Councilor Michael Byron.

To get to that consensus, councilors also have proposed taking more from the city’s surplus, or undesignated fund balance, to fund the budget, roughly doubling the amount going to the budget to $500,000.

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The other budget change is to General Assistance, with spending now not expected to increase as much as Bridgeo had originally projected.

In response to recent state General Assistance, or welfare, rules changes, including a 10 percent reduction in allowed benefits, Bridgeo reduced spending on General Assistance to $284,000.

Bridgeo’s initial budget had General Assistance going up from the $123,750 budget last year to $455,650, in anticipation of an increase in costs because of state cutbacks.

Now, the current budget proposal funds General Assistance at $284,000 which is still an increase of 129 percent over the previous year.

With the new development of the lessened tax hit, councilors Thursday proposed restoring some items previously cut from the budget, including $10,000 to restore a city subsidy of Kennebec Valley Community Action Program’s regional bus service, about $15,000 to keep three city pools open on the same schedule as last summer and about $20,000 back into Lithgow Library’s budget.

Councilors are scheduled to consider adopting the city and school budget next Thursday.

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The Augusta Board of Education approved the school’s $26.8 million share of the budget in March, but the school budget also is subject to approval by city councilors as part of the overall budget.

The school’s portion of the budget will also go to voters citywide in a budget validation referendum as part of the June 12 primary elections. The city budget only requires approval by councilors, it is not subject to a vote by residents.

The school budget is $106,000, or about 0.4 percent, lower than the current year, but will require an increase in tax dollars due to decreased revenues, including reduced state funding.

Keith Edwards — 621-5647

[email protected]

Keith Edwards covers the city of Augusta and courts in Kennebec County, writing feature stories and covering breaking news, local people and events, and local politics. He has worked at the Kennebec Journal...

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