Piscataquis County budget public hearing set for Nov. 28

DOVER-FOXCROFT – The Piscataquis County Commissioners have scheduled the annual public hearing for the 2017 county budget and the 2017-18 Unorganized Territory (UT) budget for Monday, Nov. 28, starting at 7 p.m. in the Commissioners’ chambers in the Peaks House, 163 East Main Street.

Proposed expenditures in the 2017 county budget fiscal year, which begins Jan. 1, are $4,038,985. That total represents an increase in spending of $20,761 (0.52 percent) from the current year.

The estimated tax commitment for the 17 towns and two plantations in Piscataquis County for 2017 is $2,287,016, a decrease of $52,171 (-2.23 percent). Sixteen communities will experience a drop in the county tax, and three will see an increase due to fluctuations in state valuation figures. The overall property valuation for organized Piscataquis towns is at $1.6 billion, an increase of $6.6 million in valuation from the previous year.

The UT share of the tax assessment for the county budget is $1,116,729, 32.8 percent of the total, and represents a decrease of $3,667. The state valuation of UT property for 2016 is $781,900,000, an increase of $17.5 million.

Despite the slight increase in expenditures in the proposed county budget, the county tax commitment shows a decrease because the commissioners recommend transferring $100,000 from surplus funds to reduce the commitment. In 2016, only $25,000 was transferred from surplus for that purpose.

Proposed expenditures for UT services, for the fiscal year running from July 1, 2017 to June 30, 2018, are $1,541,088, an increase of $69,215 (4.7 percent). The separate UT budget is funded exclusively by UT property taxpayers, and the estimated tax assessment of $1,014,232 represents an increase of $52,093 (5.4 percent).

Commissioners propose transferring $200,000 from surplus to reduce the tax commitment for the UT budget.

The county budget includes a general wage increase of 2 percent for full-time county employees, both union and non-union.

Commissioners and the budget committee have supported a 4.5 percent adjustment to the salaries of five positions that are elected or appointed: sheriff, chief deputy sheriff, register of deeds, register of probate and finance officer. Those raises were made after an analysis of compensation for comparable county positions in the most recent statewide salary survey of the Maine County Commissioners Association.

In the sheriff’s department budget, no new cruiser purchases are planned in 2017. The department’s patrol budget includes funding to restore a fifth patrol deputy position, and that is offset by the elimination of the former salaried administrative position in the department’s telecommunications division.

The county emergency management agency has budgeted an increase in its capital building improvement account from $5,000 to $25,000. Combined with capital funds saved over previous years, EMA will have a total of $60,000 with which to construct a garage/storage building on the grounds of the county complex in 2017.

Program grant requests to the county budget from 11 outside agencies have all been funded at the 2016 level, for a total of $168,200. The largest amounts are $105,500 for the Piscataquis County Economic Development Council, $20,400 for the University of Maine Cooperative Extension and $15,000 for the Piscataquis Soil and Water Conservation District.

In the UT budget, the county will continue with its 10-year paving plan on UT roads and has budgeted $180,000 for Elliottsville. to pave 1.76 miles of the Elliottsville Road and Bodfish Valley Road, from the Willimantic town line to the Borestone Mountain trailhead.

The UT budget also includes capital funding for the bridge account in order to complete a rehabilitation project on the Whetstone North and South bridges on the Williamsburg Road in Williamsburg next summer.

The county and UT budgets were reviewed over four meetings held between Oct. 5 and 27 by the nine-member county budget advisory committee appointed by the commissioners. The committee was chaired by Terry Knowles of Brownville, and includes Thomas Carone, Sangerville; William Thompson, Guilford; Vera Davis, Shirley; Mark Kinney, Atkinson; Chris Maas and Jane Conroy, Dover-Foxcroft; Luke Muzzy, Greenville; and Scott Snell, Big Moose Township.