Harpswell selectmen approved the proposed $6.3 million municipal budget for the next fiscal year, marking an 11.4% jump from last year’s $5.7 million budget.
Preliminary estimates point to a roughly 3% tax rate increase for residents, according to Town Administrator Kristi Eiane, but town leaders will have a more concrete number when the Maine School Administrative District 75 budget is finalized.
A 3% increase would cause the town’s tax rate would rise from $6.76 to $6.96 per $1,000 of value. This means for a Harpswell home valued at $300,000, the tax bill would increase from $2,028 to $2,088.
One of the largest boosts in the budget is a $300,000 increase in the town’s roads budget to cover the cost of repairing the second half of Basin Point Road. Funding to repair the first section of the road was approved in last year’s budget.
“Much of the project is a re-pavement, but there’s an area near the base that has been more prone to flooding,” said Eiane. “We’re going to take some steps to make that area more climate-resilient, but it’s not a full re-build of that road.”
Harpswell is also asking for an additional $300,000 to cover a debt payment from the deconstruction and removal of the Mitchell Field pier in 2018. That increase made the town’s debt service budget jump from $310,000 last year to $630,000.
“A debt obligation is something the voters have already approved borrowing, but now we’re in the repayment period,” said Eiane. “There’s no new borrowing being proposed in this budget, so that won’t add any further debt obligation.”
Eiane said contracts the city has for services have also increased since last year to follow the market rate.
Contracts for trash and recycling disposal caused a combined $73,900 increase in the proposed budget. The contract the town has with Mid Coast Hospital for paramedic services also increased nearly $40,000 from last year.
Eiane said Harpswell also made a point to increase wages for some town employees. Though the town isn’t adding any new position, those increases totaled a nearly $36,000 rise in the town’s operating expenses.
“We’ve looked at how to retain our employees and attract new employees given the competitive labor market,” said Eiane. “We had some people retire in 2021 and that’s when we realized we needed to increase our starting pay rates to reflect what’s happening around us.”
Eiane said the town also added $30,000 to the budget to cover the cost of repairing some clapboards on the town’s Old Meeting House and repainting it.
“It’s one of the oldest meeting houses in Maine and it’s in dire need of painting and a few repairs need to be done before we undertake that paint job,” she said.
Those increases are offset by a $190,000 reduction in the town’s budget category designated to other capital projects. Much of that stems from $100,000 the town needed last year to fund the second phase of a two-part upgrade to the recycling center.
Residents will vote on the proposed budget during a secret ballot referendum election on April 23, which replaces the annual town meeting due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Voting will take place from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Harpswell Community School. The full warrant is available on the town’s website.
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