BIDDEFORD — On Wednesday, the Legislature overrode Gov. Paul LePage’s veto of a $6.5 million biennium budget. The impact on Biddeford is good for the school district, but not so good for city government.
The school system will get an additional $601,000 more than originally expected from the state, according to school department business manager Terry Gauvin.
City government will lose $553,000 in revenue sharing from the state this year than it would have received if that program were fully funded, said Mayor and State Rep. Alan Casavant, D-Biddeford. In the second year of the budget, he said, Biddeford will lose $637,000 in revenue sharing funds.
It’s too early, said city officials on Thursday, to say how reduced funds from the state will impact city staff and services.
It’s not too early, however, to deduce that the reduction is bad news for Biddeford city government, and the rest of the state’s communities that are all affected by the reduction to revenue sharing.
The lost revenue in the Legislature’s budget, that was brokered through a compromise between Democrats and Republicans, will have a negative effect on the city. But it’s not as bleak as what would have happened if the governor had his way.
LePage had proposed cutting $200 million from revenue sharing. The legislature only eliminated $75 million.
How this lost revenue will affect Biddeford is unclear, said Casavant.
However, he said, “from my standpoint, it can’t go on the mil rate.”
On June 3, the city council passed a $60.3 million expenditure budget. To finance that amount, this requires a 6.1 percent increase to the mil rate. That will raise the current rate of $16.54 per $1,000 of assessed property value by an estimated $1.01.
City Council President Rick Laverriere said he also didn’t favor raising the tax rate, but said he did not want to see any staff cuts.
When the council begins to discuss the budget again, which will probably take place on Tuesday, “it won’t be pretty,” said Laverriere.
Finance Director Curt Koehler said if council members decide to leave the mil rate alone, cuts will be needed.
At that point, he said, “everything is on the table.”
Koehler said budget decisions could either be made by city staff or the council could decide to reconsider the budget.
Although the city must make some difficult decisions about how to absorb a more than half-million dollar cut in anticipated state revenue, the school department is sitting pretty.
It’s gaining more than $600,000.
However, said Gauvin, since the public already approved a budget on June 13, this new revenue won’t affect the new budget beginning July 1.
It will be carried over into next year’s budget, she said.
— Staff Writer Dina Mendros can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 324 or dmendros@journaltribune.com.
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