FORT FAIRFIELD, Maine — For the second year, Fort Fairfield councilors have approved a decrease in the town’s mill rate, which town manager Andrea Powers attributes to the recent community-wide tax revaluation and the 2021-22 fiscal year budget approved last June.
The council voted unanimously Wednesday evening to decrease the mill rate from 20.5 per $1,000 of property value to 19.5. In 2020, the mill rate went from 25.0 to 20.5, also a change that was attributed to the town’s recent tax revaluation.
Under the new mill rate, residents who own $50,000 homes will pay $975 in taxes while those with $100,000 homes will pay $1,950, according to Powers. Last year those same residents would have paid $1,025 and $2,050, respectively.
As with the previous mill rate decrease, Powers credited the revaluation with updating the town’s tax commitments and ensuring that all payment amounts are “more fair” for residents and business owners.
She also said that negotiations with town department heads over the $7 million fiscal year budget, a slight increase over the previous $6.9 million budget, helped prevent a tax rate increase.
Although the tax revaluation proved controversial with residents throughout the budget process, no residents spoke during the public comment period for Wednesday’s meeting.
Councilor Melissa Libby praised the mill rate decrease as a step toward reducing costs for residents while still providing important town services through the budget.
“There was a lot of hard work put in to get to this point. The fact that we were able to keep everything fair [in the budget] for the departments and lower taxes is remarkable,” Libby said.
In other business, the council received an update from Glenn Walker, creator of Fort Fairfield Solar, LLC, about the upcoming construction of a solar power farm at the former ReEnergy plant site.
The 5-megawatt solar farm will provide renewable energy credits to commercial and industrial subscribers through the state’s Net Energy Billing program. The credits will allow subscribers to receive a discount on their monthly electric bills.
Construction is expected to begin at the 32-acre site, located at 78 Cheney Grove Road, in spring 2022. Walker noted that Fort Fairfield Solar will reach out to potential subscribers once they have established a rate for solar energy credits.
“We want to make sure what we’re offering is competitive and fair for everyone involved,” Walker said.
The next Fort Fairfield Town Council meeting will be held Wednesday, Oct. 20, in the town council chambers.
