City councilors Tuesday approved a spending freeze of $190,000, with the goal of providing Hallowell residents with tax relief next year. One proposal is to freeze funds to lease space for the police department, which is housed in the basement of Hallowell City Hall, seen in 2016.  Andy Molloy/Kennebec Journal file

HALLOWELL — City officials froze spending on about 4% of its municipal budget Tuesday in the first decisive action taken to reduce residents’ tax burden since the City Council’s aborted attempt to reverse its budget approval in August.

Officials intend for the approximately $190,000 in savings to roll over to next year’s budget, helping to pay down costs and potentially save taxpayers money during the 2025-26 fiscal year.

Councilors were evenly split on the freeze, with Ward 2 Councilor Michael Frett, At-Large Councilor Walter McKee and Ward 4 Councilor Danielle Obery voting in favor of the cuts, and At-Large Councilor Maureen AuCoin, Ward 5 Councilor Patrick Wynne and brand-new Ward 3 Councilor Benjamin Gagnon voting against. Mayor George Lapointe broke the tie and chose to freeze the spending.

Ward 1 Councilor Kate Dufour, who proposed the approved $190,000 hold in a memo sent to councilors earlier this month, did not attend the meeting. Her proposal included:

• $50,000 from the city’s road paving budget, leaving about $120,000 left to be spent;

• $33,000 to lease a new space for the police department, which is housed in the basement of Hallowell City Hall;

• $46,474 for a new deputy clerk position;

• $19,900 from the city’s public works budget, with curtailments to culverts, building maintenance, catch basins, mowing and personal protective equipment.

The budget the City Council passed in July raised property taxes by about 20% on average, leading residents to organize a petition effort to demand the City Council reverse the budget approval and find a way to lower taxes.

The City Council reversed its budget approval on Aug. 12, unknowingly beginning a two-month foray into illegal territory: Reversing the budget meant redoing the city’s tax commitment, which, according to an October memo from the city’s attorney, is not legally possible.

One of the remaining options to reduce residents’ tax burden, the attorney wrote, was to enact an order freezing spending on portions of the budget and allowing that funding to roll over to the next fiscal year.

The other two options the attorney proposed were to give out selective rebates or to ask the Maine Legislature to pass emergency legislation allowing Hallowell to pass a new budget.

Lapointe cast the decisive vote Tuesday on the option he’d preferred since the memo was released: freezing funds to save money next year.

Wynne has been opposed to freezing funds since it was introduced as an option. He said he was satisfied with the work city officials have done to try to reduce the budget impact, and that he didn’t want to undervalue residents’ tax dollars by rolling over to next year, when inflation may cause costs to be higher.

“It does not make sense to impose this austerity at this point in the process,” Wynne said. “We put in a lot of hard work trying to find where these cuts could be in the hope of returning money into the pockets of our citizens this year. It’s clear to us now that is not going to happen, and so by imposing this austerity, which feels artificial at this point to me, we’re actually devaluing the dollars that we have collected from the taxpayers.”

McKee, one of the three councilors who supported the freeze, said he thought the City Council should reduce spending as soon as possible to finally act on the widely supported petition to lower tax impact.

“You’re right, we passed the budget we did, and then the citizens all said we should never have done that,” McKee said. “There are a whole bunch of reasons why that all happened and the way it rolled out, but I think if we’re going to give honor to that … you really need to do something about it. You’re right, we’re not going to do it this year, but for God’s sake we should do at least for next year.”

Hallowell resident Ted Perrin spoke for several minutes during the public comment period before the vote, often responding directly to Wynne’s statement against curtailing spending. He said it would have been “disrespectful” for the City Council not to freeze spending.

“Just because you budgeted the money doesn’t mean you have to spend it this year,” Perrin said. “That value is gone for us. Give you guys a dollar this year, it’s 90 cents next year — that dollar is gone for us. It doesn’t matter to us.”

Ryan Gordon was the lone resident of six public commenters to speak against freezing spending. He said he was more than comfortable paying the increased bill because the services provided by the city are worth spending money on.

He especially said he was concerned with spending cuts for road paving, playground upkeep and culverts.

“When you guys take a dollar and promise to do something in return, I expect you to do something in return,” Gordon said. “Not only do I not want a dollar taken from me that’s 90 cents next year, I also don’t want to drink PFAS-contaminated water for the next year. I don’t want to have my child play on a playground that’s broken and doesn’t have any wood chips on it. I don’t want to have to walk to school with my kid on broken, crumbling sidewalks. I don’t want to crash my car because the roads aren’t salted.”

AuCoin, who opposed the freeze, said the city may run into trouble by curtailing so much funding without knowing the legality of the freeze — much like the budget reversal the City Council didn’t know was illegal until two months later.

State law prohibits municipalities from taxing residents more than 5% over what the city actually spends, and AuCoin said she was concerned this extra freeze could count as part of that overlay and tip the city over the 5% threshold.

Lapointe said he would reach out to the city’s legal team after the meeting to understand the legality of the action the council took Tuesday.

The council referred the freeze to the Finance Committee, which will review the curtailed line items and bring back suggestions for further spending holds in the coming months.