Town Manager Proposes $1 Million in Tweaks to $28 Million Draft Budget
Public Hearing is on Tuesday
BAR HARBOR—Town Manager James Smith has a million-dollar proposal to lessen the total increased burden on Bar Harbor tax payers for the next budget, which begins in July 2024. Without any tweaks, the estimated property tax rate increase is 20.2 percent.
In the packet of materials for the Town Council, Smith suggested eliminating a proposed technology position, reducing a line item that has to do with fire hydrants and reducing the Jesup Library funding request to $304,000. Like the Warrant Committee, he also targeted multiple capital improvement line items for a reduction of almost $600,000. By bringing interest from sold bonds into the budget, the town “reduce(s) the dependency on property taxes to service these debts.” He also suggested $56,000 in reductions to the Conners Emerson School budget.
Much like the Warrant Committee, the recommended cuts to the draft budget are near to $1 million. Some of the town manager’s recommended changes were also discussed at Warrant subcommittee meetings.
The Warrant Committee had made several recommendations to the Town Council during a joint meeting at the end of February. The Council did not adopt those changes as it moved the $28 million draft budget to public hearing, March 19. People can speak to the budget at that time. The final budget is approved by voters at Town Meeting in June.
Many elements of the budget can’t be tweaked. Those include the MDI High School budget allocation once that is passed, the Hancock County Commissioner’s budget, and the AOS budget.
At that February meeting, the numbers were not finalized for the Warrant Committee’s recommendations, but there was approximately $465,00 in CIP reduction; general expense reductions were close to $70,000. Parking revenues increasing would be approximately $700,000, and there would be $75,000 in other revenues, Warrant Committee Chair Seth Libby had said. There were increases for cooperating agencies, recreation, and community band. Those numbers would have lowered the average home owner’s new proposed increase by $200. As is, the budget is an approximate 20% increase. Last year, there was a 11% increase. Since then, the town approved a bond to build a new school.
The draft proposed budget without Warrant Committee or Smith recommendations requests appropriations of $28,023,599 for the municipal budget and $8,805,537 for the education budget (elementary school fund).
In his memo to the councilors, Smith wrote, “In the Warrant Committee’s proposal, $770,000 of the funding was proposed to come from new revenues in order to achieve the nearly $1.2 million projection. Of that amount, approximately $700,000 was in new parking revenues based upon a recommended rate increase. However, as you have now heard, our preliminary review of the changes in the occupancy rate (based upon 3-months comparative data), there simply is not sufficient evidence to suggest that this is a practical budget solution. Raising parking rates that significantly that would not guarantee an efficient and effective parking policy program, let alone guarantee the generation of $700k in new revenues. Failure to fully realize these proposed revenues would have devastating effects on the municipal budget.”
He said that people may not park if there are fee increases.
“Once we have a full year’s worth of comparative analysis, and not just 3-months, we will be much better situated to make targeted policy recommendations that ensure the parking system is maximized,” he wrote.
Increasing fees was also recommended by the Warrant Committee. The Council had directed Smith to look into that as well.
“Although we are recommending modest increases in various fee schedule rates, we are also proposing to hold back on budgeting for these revenues until they are realized for one budget cycle. We would prefer to wait to see what new funds materialize from these targeted rate adjustments and then program these new realized funds into next year’s budget,” he wrote.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
The Bar Harbor Town Council will hold a public hearing Tuesday, March 19, 2024 at 6:30 p.m. in the Municipal Building Council Chambers to hear comment on the proposed budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2024, as required by Town Charter Article VI, §C-31, Part G.
Town Council order passed March 4 tentatively adopting the budget and scheduling the public hearing
Video of February 26 Warrant Committee meeting on the budget Part I Part II
Video of February 27 joint Warrant Committee/Town Council meeting on the budget
To view the detailed budget, visit the Budget page or contact the Town Clerk’s office at 207-288-4098.
Just Burying Money in the Backyard, a budget story
Warrant Committee Recommendations story
Disclosure: Shaun Farrar of the Bar Harbor Story was elected to the Warrant Committee last year. We are married. We do not always agree on everything, which makes life a bit more fun sometimes.
I like your Disclosure at the end of this article. Take care.