Town Manager & Finance Director Meet With Bar Harbor Warrant Committee
BAR HARBOR—For just about a month or so, in the middle of winter in Maine, volunteers and staff in town after town hunker over spreadsheets, scan Excel documents, and shepherd the budgets of their town to voters. Sometimes they winnow. Sometimes they expand. But in meeting after meeting, the work gets done.
It is the height of that work right now for island towns. Budgets are presented to voters at town meeting and they can be tweaked there, too.
Sometimes, it’s a bit of a guessing game. What will the electric rates be? What will the costs of toilet paper be? Sand for the roads? Will they get this grant? How much will the state send for school reimbursements?
It’s a lot.
And the implications of budgets on property owners is a lot, too. An increase seen as small by some, can be catastrophic to others. It becomes a balancing act, a tightrope walk, Bar Harbor Town Manager James Smith has said.
For just over an hour, Monday night, Bar Harbor Town Manager James Smith and Finance Director Sarah Gilbert answered multiple questions from the Warrant Committee that mostly asked about aspects of the budget and how the town is run. They also found a few typos in the draft proposed budget as they continued the work.
The meeting was meant to minimize back-and-forth emails and get work done early, Warrant Committee Chair Christine Smith said.
Some of the warrant committee members sent James Smith and Gilbert questions ahead of time. They were also available for a bit of time after the group meeting as members met as subcommittees.
One of the first questions revolved around the police department’s policy on ICE since years ago, the town council declared the town a sanctuary city.
That’s a policy questions, James Smith said. The town doesn’t predict any changes on that policy to how police officers do that job.
“If we end up with that issue, we’ll deal with it when that day comes,” he said.
“There’s nothing coming down from the feds directing us to do that kind of work,” Smith added. He emphasized that it’s a fairly complex legal area, but the town’s policy conforms with the law.
James Smith also explained language in page three of the manager memo that accompanies the draft proposed budget. That language speaks to “one time measures that offset the cost measures of school and infrastructure bonds…”
That is meant to explain the use of the fund balance from the parking meters.
“It’s a two-step approach,” James Smith said. “It’s a way to soften the blow this year, and we will have to address that next year as well,” instead of it being a “super shock” for taxpayers this year and next. It’s also part of his plan to try to stabilize the town’s tax increases.
Another question revolved around whether or not the town will continue to receive Acadia National Park’s payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) under the administration of President Trump. Those PILOTs are voluntary payments from nonprofits and the national park.
“They are always a risk. I don’t feel that this one is,” Gilbert said of the $42,600 PILOT.
Recreation and cooperating agencies were flat funded from last year except for Island Explorer. Gilbert said it was early in the process and that could change.
Questions about increases in code fees, late fees, and fees that are from vacation rental violations.
“We’ve been fairly aggressive in pursuing land use violations” for those short-term rentals, James Smith said. “The goal ultimately is just to have compliance, not revenue from violations.”
“We fully anticipate additional questions as you guys discuss and try to understand what is and what isn’t happening with the budget,” James Smith.
“The solar money is still out there, right?” warrant committee member Eben Salvatore asked.
“Correct,” James Smith replied.
Salvatore next asked when the town could pay off the solar funds or return them.
“We can’t do that until 10 years,” Gilbert said.
She explained on Tuesday that ten years from the sale of the bonds, the town could refinance or pay them in full. The town needs to spend those monies, however, within 36 months, so payback isn’t an option.
Salvatore asked if they’d be talking to department heads, which has happened before for the warrant committee members.
“Sarah and I will be answering any questions you have,” James Smith said. He said that he’d do his best to have Gilbert or himself attend the subcommittee meetings.
The current proposed draft budget is just over $28 million.
Disclaimer: I am married (gasp!) to Shaun Farrar. He is on the warrant committee. We do not always think the same about issues or music or food choices. We do not always act the same. But, you should definitely know that he’s on there when I write Bar Harbor Warrant Committee stories. Also, because of this, this story is not copyedited by anyone else. All errors are my own.
Update: The last line of this article was added immediately after this post was published. Apologies.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
Budget Review Process
Council/Warrant Committee Budget Workshops:
January 23 - Introduction of the municipal budget by Manager and Finance Director
January 28 - School Budget
January 30 - Discussion of outside agency requests
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Thank you for your comprehensive coverage of local government on MDI. As a Bar Harbor resident and tax payer I am concerned that emotion and lack of knowledge about the town's fiscal affairs led a slight majority of the voters to drastically cut the revenues received from cruise ships. It is possible that a second shoe will drop when owners of commercial property will ask to lower their tax bills because of the sales they lose due to drastically reduced cruise ship visits