NORWAY — Preparations for developing the 2014-15 municipal budget are underway.
Town Manager David Holt said department heads have been told to get their requests to him by March 1.
“Norway marches to its own drummer,” Holt said. State law lays the responsibility to create and present the budget in his hands.
He will present the budget to selectmen, the Budget Committee and the public April 1. The annual town meeting warrant will be voted on in mid-June.
The SAD 17 budget will be decided in the spring. And the amount of state revenue-sharing money to the town is unknown at this time.
The Maine House and Senate enacted a measure Thursday to restore $40 million in revenue sharing to municipalities for the fiscal year that begins July 1. The bill now goes to Gov. Paul LePage, who has until Feb. 25 to decide whether to veto it or let it become law.
“Norway’s schedule has served us well and gives us good information on expenditures and requests from the school and revenues from the state,” Holt said.
Norway has managed to keep its tax rate fairly stable over the years, he said.
In an unusual move last June, voters rebuffed major budget recommendations from selectmen and the Budget Committee, adding approximately $170,000 to the proposed $3.9 million budget at the annual town meeting.
Selectmen had recommended a $316,296 — or 7.33 percent — cut for town services to offset the projected hundreds of thousands of dollars of lost revenue, including state revenue sharing, the Homestead Exemption and personal property taxes to Norway proposed in LePage’s 2014 budget.
Although revenues were eventually restored, the action at that time meant taxpayers would pay an additional $50 per $100,000 valuation on their properties.
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