HOULTON, Maine – In less than 30 minutes, the Houlton Town Council zipped through the public hearing on Monday night for the town’s 2025 proposed municipal budget and passed it without opposition.
This year’s $14.75 million town budget includes $4.045 million in estimated RSU 29 and county mandates, and raises property taxes by 1 mill from 19.4 mills to 20.4 mills.
After multiple Board of Budget Review meetings and cuts by the town council to the $16.5 million draft budget initially proposed by the town manager, property owners were saved a huge tax hit.
In November, Town Manager Jeremy Smith presented a $16.57 million draft budget that would have raised the local tax rate nearly 5.5 mills. At the time, several councilors expressed concerns, saying there had to be cuts.
The nine-member Board of Budget Review met with department heads and discussed line items in each department’s budget with an emphasis on payroll, roads, code enforcement, police and the Humane Society contract with the town.
The review board made budget reduction recommendations to the town council and in December the council cut $1.8 million from the original draft budget.
One of the biggest changes took the roads budget back to 2024’s $200,000 from a proposed $550,000 for 2025.
Rather than putting the burden on taxpayers, councilors agreed that when road repair funds were needed they would take them from the undesignated fund balance.
Councilors did not want residents to be hit with another big tax hike, following large increases in recent years from a market revaluation on properties, the first in nearly two decades, and increases in county and school mandates.
A few items were added back into the budget including the Houlton Humane Society’s $40,069 contract with the police department after the Board of Budget Review suggested cutting it to $20,000 until a new contract could be negotiated.
The code enforcement request of $12,000 for new software was also added back into the budget, following a Board of Budget Review cut.
“I think the town’s taxpayers will be happy,” town council chairperson Jane Torres said in December when they made the changes.
