AUGUSTA — Municipal officials from across Maine say they can’t stretch their budgets any further and will have no choice but to raise property taxes, as they implored lawmakers Wednesday to defeat Gov. Paul LePage’s proposal to eliminate state aid to cities and towns.
The Republican governor, who as mayor of Waterville decried revenue sharing cuts, wants to keep funding for the program flat at about $62.5 million next fiscal year and eliminate it in 2017. He contends that cities and towns are overspending, and says he would rather provide residents with targeted tax relief by boosting a property tax credit program.
But doing away with revenue sharing would be the “final nail in the coffin” for the town of Waldo, which is already grappling with past cuts and rising costs for education, snow removal and other services, said Kathy Littlefield, chairwoman of its Board of Selectman.
“If another partnership, another trust, another promise is broken, there will be no going back,” she told the Appropriations Committee. “There are just way too many nails.”
Richard Rosen, commissioner of the Department of Administrative and Financial Services, said the governor’s more than $6 billion budget plan would deliver more “directed, targeted and meaningful” tax relief by putting an additional $60 million in the property tax fairness credit program. Under his proposal, the maximum credit for someone under the age of 65 would be raised from $600 to $1,000. Older adults could receive as much as $1,500, up from $900.
LePage sought to suspend revenue sharing funds in his last budget proposal, but Democrats successfully pushed to restore about $125 million to the program and have already suggested that they will resist his latest effort.
The governor’s plan seeks to soften the blow to municipalities by allowing them to tax nonprofit organizations, like hospitals and colleges, but the Maine Municipal Association says that about 70 percent of the cities and towns wouldn’t benefit from that provision.
Matthew Pineo, town manager of Brownville, told the committee the town doesn’t have any nonprofits to tax to make up the difference if revenue sharing is repealed.
“I’m in a poor community. I do not have the money,” he said.
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