Milo set to have a mil rate of $21.1 under 2014 budget

By Stuart Hedstrom 
Staff Writer

    MILO — A month and a half before the annual town meeting, scheduled for Monday, March 10 at 7 p.m. at the town hall, the selectmen gave their approval to a 2014 budget to bring forward to the voters for a final decision on the various warrant articles.

    Before the board voted Jan. 21 on the spending plan for 2014 — the fiscal year and calendar years match in Milo — they needed to decide on how much to propose be used from surplus to reduce the tax commitment. Town Manager David Maynard said if no surplus funds were used the mil rate would be $21.5 for every $1,000 in assessed property taxes, which would a more than $1 increase from the current rate of $20.35 that was set during a meeting last July to meet a change in town finances.
    The other three options were to use either $50,000, $75,000 or $100,000 from surplus, which equals respective mil rates of $21.1, $20.85 or $20.6. “The problem that the board has to wrestle with is because we took so much out of surplus two straight years, there is not a whole lot of cash in surplus,” Maynard said. He said the town needs a cushion to handle potential emergency expenditures, especially if the state reduces the revenues it shares with Maine municipalities.
    The budget committee opted to not make a recommendation on how much to use from surplus, instead leaving the decision up solely to the selectmen.
    The selectmen decided to use $50,000 from surplus for the tax commitment, leading to a $21.1 mil rate with the 2014 budget. At town meeting residents will have the opportunity to vote on and possibly amend warrant articles, therefore the spending plan and resulting mil rate is still subject to change.
    Selectman Jerry Brown thanked the members of the budget committee for their work, and Maynard echoed Brown’s sentiments. “Thank you everybody, there was an awful lot of work that went into this,’ he said, as department heads, town employees and others all worked on bringing a budget to the March 10 town meeting.
    Milo officials and their peers across the state have been keeping a close eye on developments in Augusta to see whether plans will go forward to reduce and/or eliminate the funds communities receive through various revenue sharing programs.
    Maynard said even before decisions are made at the state level, measures were taken to adjust in the proposed 2014 Milo budget. He said $75,000 was taken out of the paving account, a public works position was eliminated and “every department went through and picked their budget apart, I would say on average 3.3 percent reductions were made.”
    Despite taking steps to brace for reductions or eliminations of state revenue sharing funds, Milo is among the communities where town officials are voicing their opposition to such measures. Maynard shared with the selectmen a two-page letter he wrote as testimony for a public hearing on Jan. 22 in Augusta.
    In the letter he mentioned how Milo is a small town with a population comprised of a high number of senior citizens and residents with low and moderate incomes, an economy in transition from what it was during the 20th century and also still in recovery from a fire that destroyed a block of the downtown in 2008.
    Maynard wrote how the mil rate rose from $18.60 in 2012 to $20.35 in 2013, and another increase could happen for 2014. Despite the tax increases, accounts for paving and gravel road work have been reduced, a position in public works has been cut and scheduled improvement projects have been postponed.
    He said that a stable, reasonable tax rate is needed to make business attraction possible and competitive with other towns. The revenue sharing proposals could “place in jeopardy all of the redevelopment projects made to date” and Maynard said Milo would go from being “a desirable location to a less desirable location.”
    The letter also states that the town is doing what it can to go from being what some may call a welfare community to a revenue-generating municipality. As a result the state is asked to reject the concept of completely dismantling the revenue sharing program and be in line with what is currently mandated.
    One ongoing redevelopment project in Milo is the Eastern Piscataquis Business Park, and Maynard said he was contacted by the Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT) asking if any historical properties are located on Park Street between the cemetery and business park entrance.
    After checking with the Milo Historical Society, this stretch of Park Street has two older homes but neither meets the requirements to receive historic designation. “They will simply be advised there are no historic properties we are aware of,” Maynard said, saying this should be the final step needed before the MDOT can build an entrance lane on Route 11 leading to the Eastern Piscataquis Business Park.