WATERVILLE — Whether to eliminate funding for Waterville Main Street just when the organization is about to help execute a huge downtown revitalization project was the focus of debate Tuesday at a City Council budget workshop.

Some councilors and Mayor Nick Isgro argued that it is critical to keep spending down as many residents will see an increase in their property taxes because of an ongoing revaluation. Many city residents are on fixed incomes, and it will be difficult for them to absorb a tax increase, they said.

Waterville Councilwoman Dana Bushee listens during the city budget review in March. Bushee n Tuesday night moved that the council not cut money to Waterville Main Street and the code enforcement position, but a majority of councilors opposed her during non-binding voting. Staff file photo by Michael G. Seamans

The finance committee, a subcommittee of the council, recommends $40,000 to Waterville Main Street and $65,000 for a new code enforcement office position be cut from the proposed budget, but Councilor Dana Bushee, D-Ward 6, argued that both should be included in the proposal.

The most recent proposed 2016-17 municipal and school budget councilors considered was $39.1 million, which represents a decrease in the tax rate of 22 cents per $1,000 worth of valuation, but the numbers could change. The tax rate is $27.80.

Buffy Higgins, vice president of the Board of Directors for Waterville Main Street, came to the meeting armed with a long list of everything the group does, including organizing downtown festivals and the Parade of Lights, Kringleville, the farmers market, Maine Open Juried Art Show and other events. It also procures grants for downtown improvement, collaborates with other groups on various activities and installs flower boxes and signs. She said the board met and discussed ways to possibly reduce Waterville Main Street’s funding request this year, as city departments have done, and Waterville Main Street officials think it can survive this year with a 10 percent funding reduction from the city. Others who help fund the organization have cited a willingness to help fill in the gap, she said.

Charlie Giguere, president of the Main Street board, urged councilors to keep funding in the budget, saying he grew up three or four blocks from City Hall and remembers when Main Street was a hustling, bustling place. He also has seen the decline, but now sees an opportunity for resurgence, he said. Waterville Main Street helped create the vision for revitalization and wants to help execute it, according to Giguere.

“All of this wonderful news,” he said. “It just seems disturbing to me that we’re going to throw the baby out with the bath water at this point.”

He said he understands the city’s position but Waterville Main Street provides value to the city in all the events it sponsors.

“For us to just stop it makes absolutely no sense to me, who grew up three or four blocks from here,” he said.

City councilors are scheduled to take a first vote Tuesday, June 21, on the proposed municipal and school budget, and likely a second and final vote July 5, according to City Manager Michael Roy.

Bushee argued that Code Enforcement Officer Garth Collins has come to budget workshops for the last two years saying he needs another code enforcement position in his department, yet the finance committee recommends the proposed position be cut.

“I’m just confused because you guys have been arguing for a vacant building ordinance and there needs to be more code enforcement,” she said.

Council Chairman John O’Donnell, D-Ward 5, said Collins said he could do without the position now.

“Garth’s said we aren’t going to need it this year — what are you going to do?” he said.

Bushee said the city is marketing itself right now to businesses, families and property developers — trying to draw more people to the city. Isgro said, however, that those people also look at the tax rate when deciding whether to come to Waterville.

City Assessor Paul Castonguay said he agreed with Isgro that any additional spending would increase the tax rate. Bushee pushed to see if officials could pinpoint what the increase will be with the revaluation, but Castonguay said the revaluation is not yet complete.

“I feel like we’re making decisions based on ‘perhaps your property values might rise, so therefore we will cut,'” Bushee said.

Councilor Sydney Mayhew, R-Ward 4, said he supported the vacant building ordinance and the addition of a code enforcement position early on, but he could not support them in the budget proposal this year because of the tax increase. He said he lives in an affluent neighborhood but has talked with constituents who are talking about moving out of the city because of the high tax rate.

Bushee took issue with the fact that three councilors are on the finance committee and discussed budget numbers and she asked to attend a meeting but was refused. She said she felt as though decisions were made in the committee that other councilors were not part of.

“It feels like a losing battle when you guys come back to the table with a decision,” she said.

O’Donnell quickly replied, “It’s not a decision — it’s a recommendation.”

Bushee said she wanted the council to take a non-binding vote Tuesday on the Waterville Main Street funding to get an idea about whether councilors support it. She said she wanted to add money back into the proposed budget to “save Waterville Main Street.”

After Higgins said the organization would request less funding than usual this year, Bushee made a motion to put $36,000 back into the proposal for Waterville Main Street. Councilor Rosemary Winslow, D-Ward 2, seconded the motion and Councilor Jackie Dupont, D-Ward 7, voted in favor. But O’Donnell, Mayhew and councilors Steve Soule, D-Ward 1, and Nathaniel White, D-Ward 2, voted against it.

It was not an official vote, and councilors may make amendments and propose cuts to the proposed budget at Tuesday’s council meeting, as well as at the July 5 meeting when a final vote on the budget likely would be taken.

Amy Calder — 861-9247

acalder@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @AmyCalder17

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