PARIS — Residents will gather Tuesday, June 20, to decide the fate of the town’s $5.2 million municipal budget.
The meeting is at the Paris Fire Station at 137 Western Ave., starting at 6 p.m.
There are no proposed ordinance changes this year.
The municipal budget is facing a significant increase of nearly 12%, but the rate of increase is lower than last year’s, Town Manager Dawn Noyes said at a public hearing on the budget in April.
The municipal budget includes money for items such as police, fire, debt service and the highway departments. It does not include money for Maine School Administrative District 17, Oxford County government, social services and Norway Paris Solid Waste, which adds an additional $4.6 million.
Voters approved the MSAD 17 budget earlier this week.
Residents on Tuesday will have a say on the social services and Norway Paris Solid Waste accounts. The social services line includes the Paris Public Library downtown and Hamlin Memorial Library on Paris Hill.
Norway Paris Solid Waste is asking for a 63% increase to $477,200 because of higher expenses, trucking and fuel charges and less money available for recycling. The overall NPSW budget is shared equally by both Paris and Norway.
Much of the increase to the municipal budget is due to benefits and wage increases, and higher equipment costs. The budget includes an 8% wage increase for town employees, which is slightly lower than the annual cost of living increase of 8.5%, Noyes said.
The wage increase is needed to prevent neighboring towns from pulling away Paris employees with promises of a higher wage.
The General Assistance budget is up by more than 500% to $38,240 because of new state mandates on what towns are required to pay.
The Fire Department is the only department with a lower budget than last year. Its budget is down 10% due to hiring one full-time employee instead of two. The town will save about $78,000 in wages and benefits due to the change.
Town officials have proposed using $2,683,721 in anticipated general revenue, a $200,000 increase from last year, to limit the tax rate increase.
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