FARMINGTON – Farmington selectmen adopted a resolution to oppose the Palesky tax-cap proposal at their meeting Tuesday night.
Among their reasons for opposing the tax cap are:
• The proposal establishes an inflexible 1 percent tax cap without regard for the interests of a municipality to provide for the health, welfare, safety and education of its residents.
• It would reduce the town’s municipal and public school operating budgets by approximately $2 million, 37.4 percent of all current property tax collections.
• In June, Maine voters adopted the School Finance and Tax Reform Act of 2003 in June, which will provide property tax relief in the form of increased state funding for education and other tax burden abatement actions.
Further, the board believes that:
• The budget cuts would result in irresponsible reductions in municipal and educational services.
• The long-term impact would increase state taxes and shift control of local government affairs from the town meeting to the state.
• The state would not be able to perform local services adequately or efficiently, and those services would have to be cut.
• The tax cap would not have an equal impact on all town residents, or all towns.
For these reasons, the board resolved to oppose the Palesky tax cap proposal and to press for speedy implementation of the school finance initiative requiring the state to pay 55 percent of education costs.
The resolution also asks that the school finance initiative causes an actual reduction of property taxes and does not increase municipal spending, and asks that the town manager participate in activities to further the resolution.
The resolution passed unanimously with comments by selectmen, the town manager and one resident.
Grace Beacham said that she recently received her tax bill and noticed that a large part of her taxes goes to education. She no longer has children in school but has no problem with her tax dollars funding schools.
“The children are the town’s future, Maine’s future and the country’s future,” she said. She urged selectmen, regardless of what happens, to do everything they can to sustain educational funding.
Chairwoman Mary Wright, whose daughter is a principal in southern Maine, said she did a little research and discovered schools are looking at ways to reduce spending if the tax-cap proposal passes. Many are considering doing away with after-school sports and clubs; art and music programs would be cut; and busing would be reduced or eliminated, as would school lunch programs.
Schools that are not in a district are taking a big hit, she said. But SAD 9 will also be affected, and she suggested that the town needs to press the district on what it will do if there is a budget cut.
“The towns of SAD 9 need to pressure the district to educate the public” about the effects the proposal will have on the schools,” she said.
Richard Davis, Farmington’s town manager, was concerned with voters’ perceptions of town officials.
“Town officials are being accused of using scare tactics,” he said. That’s not true, one just needs to look at the numbers, he said.
“Palesky could plunge the state into a recession,” he said.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
