Wiscasset selectmen accomplished their goal of dropping the property tax rate Tuesday, Sept. 15 with a new tax commitment of $16.40 or $1,640 for every $100,000 of property value. The mil rate for the 2015-2016 fiscal year is a decrease of 3.5 percent from the previous year’s mil rate of $17.
Selectmen voted to withdraw $100,000 from the surplus account, which has a balance of approximately $900,000, to set the current tax rate. “Particularly after last year, the voters deserve it,” Chair Ben Rines said.
Wiscasset’s mil rate rose more than 4 percent from 2013-2014 to 2014-2015, selectmen said. The increase was largely the result of Wiscasset’s withdrawal from RSU 12 and establishment of an independent school district. The education budget is now largely responsible for the decrease in the mil rate.
Selectmen were presented the option of using no money from surplus to decrease the tax commitment, which would have resulted in a mil rate of $16.60, or using up to $300,000 from surplus, which would have resulted in a mil rate of $15.90.
The reduced tax commitment is due to decreases in the education and municipal budgets and increased revenue from commercial development, such as Rynel’s expansion and various smaller projects, and an increased valuation of Central Maine Power Co. property.
Wiscasset School Department’s budget dropped more than 10 percent for the 2015-2016 fiscal year, from approximately $9.4 million in 2014-2015 to $8.4 million in 2015-2016. Taxpayers’ contribution to the education budget is approximately $5.6 million.
The school department received an additional $108,070 in state subsidy for 2015-2016 and included an article in their warrant that allowed any additional state funds to be used to reduce the local contribution to education. The additional $108,070, however, was not included in the calculation for the tax commitment.
According to Town Manager Marian Anderson, the additional subsidy has not been received and she did not want to build it into the tax commitment out of fear that it would not be. The warrant article did not specify which year the additional subsidy could be used to reduce the tax commitment, Anderson said.
Wiscasset’s municipal budget also decreased approximately 1.34 percent from $5.8 million in 2014-2015 to $5.7 million in 2015-2016. “The budgets were good this year, thanks to a lot of hard work on the part of the department heads,” Anderson said.
In other business, after extended debate, selectmen approved amendments to the temporary business and business license ordinances developed by Town Planner Jamel Torres in conjunction with the ordinance review committee. The amendments were initiated after selectmen denied two temporary business license requests for the town common.
The amendments were an effort to tighten the ordinances to prevent a legal challenge to selectmen’s denial of license applications. Debate centered on the appeals process for future denials. In the amended ordinances, selectmen’s decision to deny a license request can be heard by the appeals board.
Rines objected to the appeals board having the decision to overturn selectmen’s decisions. He argued the appeals board is in place to review the decisions of appointed officials, not elected leaders, and any appeal to a selectmen’s decision should be heard in court.
Other selectmen were in favor of the appeals board as a system of checks of balances for selectmen. Ultimately selectmen voted 3-1 to approve the amended ordinances, with the agreement that the conversation could be revisited and the ordinances revised before they are presented to voters.
The amended temporary business and business license ordinances will go through a public hearing and must be voted on at Wiscasset’s next annual town meeting before they are adopted. The ordinance review committee will have a host of revised ordinances for voters to consider next June, Torres said.
Selectmen also hosted a public hearing on the general assistance ordinance and voted unanimously to approve it.
