Smaller budget, higher taxes for Buckfield voters

BUCKFIELD — There's good news and bad news for the Buckfield taxpayer, said town leaders during a Tuesday meeting of the Board of Selectmen.

The good news is that the budget committee, working with department heads, the town manager, and members of the board, was able to produce a budget of $713,668, an amount that represents a 10 percent cut from last year's budget.

The bad news is that the average property owner will see a net increase on property taxes, which will amount to about a $25 bump on homes valued at $125,000.

This is because, while the town was able to reduce its spending, the tax contribution to both the county and the school increased, which more than made up for the cuts.

"Last year's budget for the town was $1,639,774," said Holmes. "The group made a decision that they would ask that I bring a budget to them that was $160,000 below the previous year."

Holmes described the budget process, in which department heads were asked to make cuts to their departments, and projects were added to, and deleted from, the budget.

"Last week, the budget committee and I have been working, and we actually are now at a point where the town budget is $173,486 lower than it was in appropriations last year," said Holmes.

The county budget increased by more than 7 percent, which amounted to about $6,000. The school budget increased by $193,000, or more than 18 percent. Holmes noted that the amount paid to the school has been kept artificially low for Buckfield taxpayers, in part because of a use of carryover funds to blunt the cost.

The cuts largely came from areas that did not directly affect the services the town provides. An education reserve fund, which received $70,000 was not contributed to, a debt service of $40,000 was retired, and the amount contributed to the undesignated fund balance was reduced from $20,000 to $5,000.

Warren Wright of the budget committee noted that the town is in better shape than it has been in recent years, which helped to make this year's municipal budget lower.

"That fund balance got down to a little over $200,000 at one time, which is very dangerously low," said Wright. "We did raise the mil rate enough to build it, and we've built it up now to $500,000, which is not wonderful, but it's ... in reasonable shape."

The mil rate for Buckfield residents will increase from 19.35 to 19.55. The mil rate represents the amount paid on $1,000 worth of property, so a person who owns a home valued at $100,000 will now pay $1,955 in property taxes.

The budget will be presented to voters during the town's annual meeting in June.