AUBURN — Councilors said Monday that they could live with 3 percent municipal property tax increase for 2012-13.
“Prices go up. Just drive by a gas station to see that,” Councilor Josh Shea said. “I think there is more harm in not having some tax increase now.”
Interim City Manager Don Gerrish pushed city councilors to start setting policy if a proposed $35.9 million school budget gets voter approval on May 8. If it passes, it means a $1.2 million increase over the current year’s budget and an $851,00 increase in property taxes.
“If we approve the budget I presented and we assume the school budget passes, it would mean a 4.75 percent property tax increase,” Gerrish said.
Councilors need to speak if they want anything different, he said.
Councilor Leroy Walker said he favored using money from the city’s fund balances to reduce the proposed property tax increase to 3 percent. It would amount to paying $87 more on a home valued at $150,000.
“The economy is going to get better, we are going to sell off some property, and I don’t think doing that will hurt the taxpayers,” Walker said.
Councilor Belinda Gerry dissented and said she favored no property tax increases at all. Area businesses should be encouraged to donate money to help the schools, and councilors should cut intergovernmental spending, she said.
“Maybe we can use that money in other, more necessary places,” Gerry said.
Gerrish said he recommends against using too much fund balance money and would look for places to cut.
“But I needed direction from the councilors, and that’s what I got,” Gerrish said.
Councilors adopted the School Department budget without making changes and set the referendum on it for May 8.
“I’m sending this budget directly to the voters,” Shea said. “If they vote it down, then anybody who says the schools spend too much has some real ammunition to come back. If it passes then it shows that education is among the highest priorities that we have for our tax dollars. Either way, we get a piece of information we could not have if we mess with this.”
But councilors Gerry and Tizz Crowley disagreed with scheduling the school referendum for May 8.
“I want it pushed back another week, to May 15, to give absentee voters the most amount of time possible,” Gerry said.
Voters have until May 3 to request an absentee ballot from the City Clerk’s office and that’s not enough time, Gerry said. Crowley agreed.
“It only gives voters eight days to secure an absentee ballot, and if we extend it a week, they get 13 days,” Crowley said.
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