Portland Selectmen Trim Budget

The Portland Board of Selectmen went about the process of trying to make a lean budget even leaner on Tuesday and Wednesday night and in the end succeeded.

Line by line the selectmen deliberated the proposed $30.512 million budget for Fiscal Year 2012-13, eventually coming up with about $65,700 in savings, or about .50 of a mill. The proposed mill rate is now about 30.27.

“You did very well this year. There’s a lot of work that went into this,” First Selectwoman Susan Bransfield told the board.

Much of the cuts on Wednesday were a few thousand here and a thousand there. Larger savings were realized on Tuesday, including anticipated costs in electricity.

Bransfield explained that the town puts out to bid its electricity and the bids came in low, allowing the town to realize a savings. Originally, the town budgeted based on what it had paid this fiscal year.

Unfortunately, some of the potential savings the town would have had across the board were offset by adjustments for the increase in fuel costs.

“The changes in fuel, that’s what has really disappointed me,” Bransfield said. “Because gasoline is so high and oil is so high, that it really has affected our budget. So, the savings that we get in electricity is good, but it’s really unfortunate that fuel has gone up. We have to budget for that.”

That situation will improve some when Gildersleeve School and Company No. 1 and No. 2 Firehouses switch to gas from oil.

The proposed budget initially called for a mill increase of 0.6 to cover increased costs. Complicating matters, however, is the revaluation. As a result, the budget calls for an additional 2.02 mill increase to reflect property value changes brought about by the property revaluation that saw the total grand list decrease about 6.7 percent.

The necessary mill rate adjustment won’t increase the taxes of residents whose home value decreased as a result of the revaluation. Some might even still see a decrease. Those whose homes had an increase in the assessed value should expect higher taxes.

The board left untouched the board of education’s request for $18.454 million, an increase of $358,000 or 1.98 percent.

“They did all their work for us,” Bransfield said. “They put a very lean budget forward.”

Overall, Bransfield was pleased with the budget that the town would be putting forward.

“I think the selectmen worked very hard in trying to give the leanest budget that they could without cutting services,” she said. “I think they did a fine job with that. It’s going to make our job a little more difficult because we have to, of course, watch those dollars very carefully, but we’re prepared to do that.”

With the cuts to the proposed budget, the amount is now projected to be $30.445 million, an increase of about $630,794.

The board of selectmen will formally adopt its budget on April 4. The budget will then go to a town meeting, where it could be modified by a vote if five percent of the voters show up. From there residents will get to vote on it at a referendum on May 8.