County officials eye $4M budget for 2017

DOVER-FOXCROFT — A proposed $4,038,985 Piscataquis County budget for 2017, along with a little more than $1,541,000 in the Unorganized Territories (UT) budget in the 2017-18 fiscal year, was presented at a public hearing on Nov. 28 as part of the process by county officials for developing the pair of spending plans.
“Overall the county budget that is proposed this evening comes in at a little more than $4 million,” Interim County Manager Tom Lizotte said. He said this figure represents an increase in spending of $20,761 or 0.52 percent from the current calendar year.
The estimated tax commitment for the 17 towns and two plantations in Piscataquis County for 2017 is $2,287,016, a decrease of $52,171 (2.23 percent) from 2016. Lizotte said community county assessments are based on state valuation, with 14 seeing a decrease and the other three municipalities facing slight increases. He also said the county commissioners are proposing transferring $100,000 from surplus to reduce the tax commitment, $75,000 more than the year before.
Going over various components of the county budget, Lizotte said the spending plan includes a general wage increase of 2 percent for full-time county employees — union and non-union alike.
“The commissioners decided to make an adjustment, and it was supported by the budget committee, of more than 4.5 percent to five positions,” Lizotte said. The salary adjustments are for the sheriff, chief deputy, register of deeds, register of probate and finance officer, and the raises are based on an analysis of similar positions elsewhere in the state.
“We have added one position to patrol but that is offset by the elimination of a supervisor position in telecommunications,” Lizotte said. He said a new patrol officer position has been created and another vacancy has been filled. The two hires are starting at the Maine Criminal Justice Academy in early 2017 and then will fill coverage gaps across the region once they are ready to be on the road.
“I think that’s a step in the right direction,” the interim county manager said, saying an upcoming task force will examine all aspects of law enforcement in the county.
The emergency management agency (EMA) has an increase to $25,000 in its capital building improvement account. “A $20,000 increase in one line of a department is significant,” Lizotte said.
He explained the $25,000 will be combined with another $35,000 in department reserve to fund a garage/storage building for EMA on the county grounds.
“This year all the agencies were asked to keep their programming requests at the same level as 2016 and they did,” Lizotte said. A little more than $160,000 is earmarked for 11 outside organizations, with the largest amount for the Piscataquis County Economic Development Council at $105,500.
Lizotte said the approximate $1,541,000 UT budget is up by $69,215 (4.7 percent) from the 2016-17 fiscal year. He said the increase is due to the county continuing with its 10-year paving plan. A sum of $180,000 is budgeted for work on 1.76 miles of roads in Elliottsville.
The UT budget is funded entirely by residents of these parts of the county, and they also pay just under a third of the tax assessment for the county budget ($1,116,729 or about $3,670 less than in the current year). The commissioners are proposing transferring $200,000 from surplus to reduce the tax commitment for the UT budget.
When asked Lizotte said “about 770 people live in the unorganized territory” with approximately 40 percent of these residents residing in Orneville and Blanchard townships.
“We will vote on that this coming Tuesday in December,” Commissioners Chair Fred Trask said with the budgets scheduled to be on the agenda for the Tuesday, Dec. 6 8:30 a.m. meeting. A formal vote to accept needs to be made by the end of the year, and the commissioners could opt to sign the financial documents during their Dec. 20 session if a decision is not made next week.