Ludlow residents may see tax increase

Houlton Pioneer Times Photo/Joseph Cyr
TOWN MEETING —Gary Stairs, left, reads one of the warrant articles during Monday night’s town meetin in Ludlow.
By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer
    LUDLOW — Taxes may be on the rise for residents in the town of Ludlow.
    About 40 residents filled the town office Monday evening for the annual town meeting and approved a $308,818 municipal budget for 2011-12. That budget is up from $252,262 a year ago. While the overall tax impact will not be known until the SAD 70 budget has been approved sometime in June, the initial indication is that the town’s mill rate could be jumping.
    “We don’t know what the school budget figure will be just yet, so it’s only an estimate,” Town Manager Diane Hines said.
    When factoring in estimates for homestead exemptions, state revenue sharing, excise tax, county tax and the SAD 70 budget, the overall budget could be $413,540.
    At the polls earlier in the day, about 43 registered voters cast ballots for two town positions. Virginia McCain was re-elected to the Board of Selectmen with 41 votes. Chet McCord received one vote as a write-in candidate. David Stevens was elected to the SAD 70 school board with 30 votes, defeating incumbent Melissa Ivey, who received 11.
    The tax increase weighed heavily on the minds of many residents. The town currently has a tax rate of 16.2 mills per $1,000 in valuation, which means a home valued at $100,000 has a tax bill of $1,620. The new tax rate could be as high 20 mills, according to Town Treasurer Noreen Foster. If that were to happen, the projected increase in taxes on the same $100,000 home would be about $400.
    “I’m not sure how they [the board] were predicting that 20 mill figure,” Hines said. “We could be up a couple of mills, but it’s something our assessor determines.”
    Hines said she thought the mill rate would not be finalized until after the SAD 70 budget is complete. Tax bills will not be sent out until the first of September, she added.
    The municipal budget features an increase of $56,556 from the previous year. Much of the increase stems from raising individual line accounts, which raised questions with some of the residents. For example, the town officers’ salaries and other expenses of the general government account went from $50,000 last year to $55,000 this year.
    “Good help does not come cheap,” Foster said. “Everything is going up. Just look at the price of gas lately. That doesn’t mean we have to spend it. We don’t want to go over budget.”
    “The auditor told us it was easier to budget a little over rather than under,” Reg Dow said. “If we budget too low and go over, where are we going to get it [the money] from?”
    Hines said she was happy with the turnout and discourse between residents and town officials.
    “I was thrilled with how smoothly the meeting went,” Hines said. “I liked the interactivity we had. I think people really felt like they had a voice, which is something they have been missing.”
    Gary Stairs served as moderator for the town meeting, which lasted for nearly two hours.
    Only two of the 29 articles failed to pass at the meeting. One of the failed articles was a selectmen recommendation that the town do away with the office of road commissioner — an unpaid position held by Randy Reeves.
    “I didn’t know anything about this until the [town report] came out,” Reeves said. “I never suggested this. I didn’t know anything was happening. I never wanted to get rid of it [the title.]”
    The article failed with zero “yes” votes and 37 no “votes.”
    The other failed article was to spend $8,100 to update the tax maps. The board approved a bid by Swallow Associates at its Feb. 2 meeting, but needed town approval to spend the money.
    One resident asked if the updated maps were a necessity, or if the town could get by for another year.
    “The maps are really quite old and inaccurate,” Hines said. “I think they were made in 1974 and have been updated, but we’re really behind.”
    The motion was unanimously defeated.
    The largest individual increase came in the town’s road maintenance account. Last year, the town budgeted $20,000, but this year selectmen were seeking $40,000 to aid in repairing several roads.
    “You can’t fix roads without money,” Reeves said. “This winter, we had two bad water details that washed out a lot of roads. We fixed them up temporarily, so we could get by. We have put in for some FEMA money, but it didn’t sound to me like they were going to cover much. It’s not a certainty.”
    Residents approved paying off its $132,000 loan for the Ludlow Road Rehabilitation Fund. In so doing, the town hopes to save $16,000 in interest payments. Last year, the payment was $30,000.