Mars Hill taxpayers will have to wait until the summer to know their next mill rate, but the rest of the town budget has come in not too far ahead of last year’s.
The Mars Hill Town Council approved a $1.3 million budget for the 2016-17 fiscal year in January, increasing overall spending by $121,000 but with revenue offsets that leave taxpayers on the hook for only an extra $7,300 compared to last year, said Town Manager David Cyr.
Revenue is increasing by $230,000, the bulk of it thanks to the town’s capitalization of Maine’s business equipment tax exemption, Cyr said.
Currently, Mars Hill residents pay a mill rate of 16.5, or $1,650 in property taxes for a home valued at $100,000. The new $7,300 in the budget will contribute to a very small rise in the rate, although as in other localities, the major determinant will be the school district budget, due in June.
Among the largest areas of the budget seeing more in the next cycle, the public works department will get a 20 percent boost to $354,000. The town administration spending will increase 10 percent, with another $12,000 going to town employee salaries and another $19,000 slated for increases in health insurance costs. The town’s capital reserves account will also get a boost from $58,000 last year to $174,000
Cemetery maintenance in Mars Hill is getting another $10,000, thanks to a past donation that hasn’t been used, Cyr said. Mars Hill’s general assistance funding is remaining the same, at $6,000, as is the $25,500 allocation to the Hansen Memorial Library.
This is Cyr’s second budget since taking the job as town manager. He previously worked in Aroostook County government, as an engineer and a selectboard member in Woodland, where he still lives and commutes from.
“I’d like to believe we’re growing,” Cyr said of Mars Hill. As part of a comprehensive plan drafted in 2014, the town hopes to increase its population more than 40 percent to 2,000 and add another 200 jobs by 2030, by attracting young adults and families, as well as retirees.
On the economic development front, Cyr and other staff are working on another tax increment financing plan, or TIF, a business incentive and subsidy system, this time with McCrum Land LLC. The TIF would join three others in the town, including the Bigrock wind farm, which generated $500,000 for the town last year, and the recently-finalized Pineland Farms deal.
