AUBURN — The city will keep six vacant positions unfilled next year in response to expected revenue losses related to the coronavirus pandemic.
City Manager Peter Crichton said Monday that his updated budget proposal accounts for a 20% reduction in municipal revenue-sharing, part of more than $300,000 in projected losses.
While the City Council is expected to vote on next year’s $41.3 million municipal budget June 1, Crichton laid out a plan Monday for budget cuts that will allow the city to arrive at a 0% property tax increase.
Those budget cuts will be found, he said, by leaving six vacant positions unfilled, including two firefighters, a police officer and three Public Works employees.
Crichton said Monday that “all of these decisions have an impact and have consequences” on the level of service the city can provide, but are necessary to plan for the economic impact of COVID-19.
The firefighter positions, one retiring in July, will total $146,756 in savings, but will add an estimated $104,000 in overtime costs, lowering the net savings to $42,756.
Crichton said at the Police Department, the officer position will save $72,318. He told the council Monday that not having the position “will hamper the city’s Traffic Division Unit and the goal of a more walkable downtown.”
At Public Works, the loss will be two equipment operators at a savings of $137,868 and a mechanic for a savings of $75,558.
Equipment operators drive snowplows during the winter, which staff said will cause changes in snow removal times this winter.
The total savings from the vacant positions is $328,500.
Crichton’s budget proposal has shifted as budget season has coincided with the pandemic. He said Monday that he has been in regular contact with city administration in other Maine municipalities regarding crafting budgets.
“What I have learned has not been encouraging,” he said in a council memo. “I have learned that my colleagues in large, medium, and small communities throughout Maine have reduced their municipal revenue-sharing anywhere from 15% to over 50%, depending on how conservative their projections were to begin with.”
The projections in Auburn also account for a loss in vehicle excise tax revenue.
He said he’s hoping the revenue losses don’t become reality, but municipalities are “expecting it will based on history.”
On Monday, Gov. Janet Mills said she has been in discussions with the Maine congressional delegation on supporting more federal aid to state and local governments.
Last week, Mayor Jason Levesque sent a letter to Mills requesting guidance on the state’s initial round of coronavirus relief bill funding, which equaled $1.25 billion. He is lobbying the state to disburse funding to local governments for pandemic-related expenses.
Kyle Hadyniak, director of communications for the Maine Department of Administrative and Financial Services, said Monday that the state has not spent the initial funding, and like other states, “is awaiting further action by the federal government as Congress works on the next support package, because that legislation could adjust some components of the coronavirus relief bill and provide flexibility in terms of the way the funding can be spent.”
Crichton said municipalities are “all in the same boat” in regard to planning for next fiscal year, which begins July 1.
“None of us have a crystal ball,” he said.
In response to the proposed cuts, Councilor Leroy Walker said the city should look again at how it utilizes Fire Department overtime pay, a perennial issue in Auburn.
“We have to look at it in a whole different way,” he said during the meeting. “That department has so much overtime it’s just unbelievable.”
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