VAN BUREN, Maine – Van Buren town council set the mill rate on Wednesday night to 20.5, the same as last year’s rate.
For a median-valued home in Van Buren worth $125,000, this mill rate would result in a $2,565.50 annual tax bill.
Earlier this year, Van Buren residents approved a $3,432,569 budget during the town’s annual meeting. And although this represents a $145,206 increase over the previous year, Town Manager Luke Dyer said during the June town meeting that the budget would likely not result in a mill rate increase.
At the Sept. 18 council meeting, Dyer explained how the town managed to avoid increasing the tax rate. He said the town saw an increase in state revenue sharing and also had some leftover money from the previous year.
Dyer also commended Van Buren Tax Assessor Jennifer Rancourt for working to prevent a mill rate increase this year.
“A lot of this is just genuine, hard footwork,” he said, noting that Rancourt got over $1 million of BETE (Business Equipment Tax Exemption) reimbursement value.
Dyer said a building owned by Lajoie Growers, LLC, a local farm and produce distributor, worth roughly $1 million also came on the tax roll this year.
The town slightly reduced its overlay this year, which is an amount of money set aside to cover tax abatements and exemptions. This year’s overlay is $68,000 whereas last year’s overlay was $72,000.
“I don’t foresee us having to do a significant amount of abatements this time around,” he said. “In the past, we had to bump that up quite a bit because we knew we were tearing down a significant amount of buildings.”
Dyer said the town had some issues with TRIO, their municipal budgeting software, but they were fixed just in time for the Sept. 18 meeting.
Councilor Peter Madore, who was acting as chairman in John Beaulieu’s absence, also commended Rancourt for working to create a flat mill rate.
“We’ve had a lot of improvements in town, and to say that we’re not increasing our mill rate is really good. So I want to thank you guys for the hard work,” Madore said.
