A proposed $3,858,603 municipal budget for Waldoboro will be decided by referendum at annual town meeting on Tuesday, June 10.
The proposed budget would be an increase of $148,601 or 4 percent over the current year, coming in $24,136 under the town’s property tax levy limit.
Both the Waldoboro Board of Selectmen and the Waldoboro Budget Committee voted in favor of all the budget articles. Many articles were unanimously recommended by both bodies.
If voters approve the budget, it would require $1,860,104 in property taxes to fund it, a $149,696 or 8.75 percent increase over last year. The rest of the budget would be funded through $1,875,922 in revenues, requiring approval on the warrant, and an estimated $122,507 in state reimbursements for homestead and business equipment tax exemptions.
“It’s a very conservative, lean budget. There are no areas at this point that have not already been affected,” said Town Manager Linda-Jean Briggs.
Any further savings would come at the cost of service, she said.
“I will work with this very lean budget, but knowing going forward I’m going to try to affect the revenue lines so we can still maintain the level of service that we have but not further increase the tax rate that people have,” she said.
The biggest increase in the proposed budget comes under capital reserve requests, which is unanimously recommended at $423,909, up just under $100,000 from the amount approved last year.
The proposal includes increased requests for equipment reserves for the town’s police, fire, emergency medical services, and public works departments.
During the budget process, Briggs said she believes many of the town’s capital reserve accounts are under-funded.
Paving, which makes up the lion’s share of the capital requests, is proposed at $185,000, down almost $10,000 from last year.
The request would cover paving 3.5 miles of town roads, Public Works Director John Daigle said during the budget process.
Another area of note is Waldoboro’s $266,232 proposed share of the $578,362 transfer station budget, which would be up $18,904 over the current year.
Briggs said the increase is largely due the addition of a part-time position to help with manning new vehicle scales that will be installed there.
The new scales are hoped to bring in additional revenues to the transfer station.
The additional employee, at 28 hours per week, would cost $11,000 in total to Waldoboro, Friendship, and Cushing, Briggs said.
The budget line for the office of the town manager is proposed to go up as well at $131,086, an increase of $18,436 or 16.4 percent.
As part of the increase, Briggs, who replaced John Spear as town manager earlier this year, was hired at a higher rate than Spear and is taking advantage of benefits that Spear did not, according to Briggs.
Spear was paid approximately $61,000 per year (down from a possible $66,000) because he opted to take 10 unpaid days per year, according to Finance Director Eileen Dondlinger. Briggs was hired at $70,000 per year.
The town’s information technology coordinator, Liam Ducharme, and receptionist, Melody Tracy, also received cost of living increases under the town manager line, Briggs said.
A copy of the full town meeting warrant is available for viewing on the town’s website, http://www. waldoboromaine.org.
For more information on candidates for town positions, including two selectmen’s seats, see the related article on page 6A.
Polls for Waldoboro’s annual town meeting will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Waldoboro Municipal Building.
