Damariscotta Town Manager Matt Lutkus, at the request of Selectman Josh Pinkham, is going to research the possibility of eliminating town funding of nonprofit organizations.
At present, nonprofit organizations have to gather signatures and petition the town to place their funding requests on the annual town meeting warrant. This year, 13 organizations requested a total of $44,487, which the voters approved.
Pinkham said he wants to look into ending the petition process. Instead, the town would include requests from the organizations with tax bills.
Taxpayers would then have the option to donate to an organization or organizations of their choice or not to donate.
“I know in other towns, when they send out tax bills, you can put money toward whatever nonprofit you want,” Pinkham said. “Is that something that we can do as a goal, to try to look into, because I’ve had quite a few citizens come to me and say ‘Camden and a lot of other towns do that and some of the nonprofits get more money than…?'”
Pinkham brought up the matter at an Aug. 1 meeting of the Damariscotta Board of Selectmen, during a discussion of the board’s goals for the 2012-13 fiscal year.
“We can look into that and provide a recommendation to the board well in advance of town meeting,” Lutkus said.
Chairman David Atwater said “a number of towns” use a similar approach, including, he thinks, Camden, Rockland and Rockport.
Camden Town Manager Patricia Finnegan said Camden’s municipal budget includes funding for nonprofit organizations. The town does not use the system described by Pinkham and Atwater.
Rockland City Manager James Smith said the Rockland City Council receives requests from nonprofits and decides what requests to include in the city budget. The city does not use a voluntary system.
Rockport does use a similar system; however, contrary to raising more funds for nonprofit organizations, the organizations now receive almost nothing.
The Lincoln County News spoke with Rockport officials in December 2010, when Atwater originally brought up the idea.
In the 2006-07 fiscal year, the last year Rockport appropriated funds for nonprofits, the organizations received $24,861. In the 2009-10 fiscal year, taxpayers donated $995.91, just 4 percent of the previous total.
The Lincoln County News was unable to obtain up-to-date figures by press time as Rockport’s finance director is on vacation.
In other goals news, Selectman Vicki Pinkham repeated a request to have the town look into instituting a pay-for-parking system downtown.
The board unanimously approved its goals with amendments to consider nonprofit funding and a pay-for-parking system.
The board will have a workshop to talk about how to meet those goals at 5:30 p.m. Wed., Aug. 15.
In other business, the selectmen approved the expenditure of up to $42,280 for the design phase of the Chapman Street drainage and sidewalk project. An Efficiency Maine grant will pay for the work. The engineering firm Wright-Pierce will complete the design.
