GARDINER — Councilors will consider proposals to cut the city’s fiscal year 2026 budget by about $100,000 Wednesday evening in a move aimed at minimizing financial uncertainty.

When city staff proposed a draft $8.4 million budget earlier this spring that would have increased municipal spending by about $420,000 and added a new administrative specialist position, Mayor Patricia Hart said councilors were wary of adding the cost of a new employee to this year’s budget.

“The discussion started from concerns among councilors about the current uncertainty with what’s going to happen with tariffs and grants and people’s jobs and their Medicaid and their Medicare, and all the things that Congress is looking at,” Hart said. “There’s just a lot of uncertainty right now. The budget had a new position added, and the discussion was: Is now the time, given all this uncertainty, to be adding staff when most places are factoring in that level of uncertainty into their budgets?”

The administrative specialist position proposed by City Manager Robert Peabody would shift some public information officer duties away from the Economic Development Director Melissa Lindley so she could focus more specifically on business outreach and implementing economic development strategies.

Lindley currently handles public information and city website tasks on top of her economic development position; those duties would be reassigned to the administrative specialist.

The restructuring would also include promoting the Planning and Development Administrative Assistant Angelia Christopher to a new planning coordinator position. That role would take on more involvement with the Planning Board and the implementation of Gardiner’s comprehensive plan.

Hart said councilors eventually came to the conclusion that the staff restructuring itself didn’t need to be axed, but that the cost to do so — about $100,000 — should be.

“We took a step back and said, really, what we’re looking at is this $100,000 that is the cost of the position and benefits and all of that,” she said. “We took it away from thinking about the position to framing it as reducing $100,000.”

With that directive from the City Council after the May 21 meeting, Peabody said he came up with four options:

• Adding a full-time administrative specialist position and promoting Christopher to planning coordinator, then offsetting the cost by reallocating about $100,000 in unused tax increment financing money to the general fund;

• Adding a part-time administrative specialist position and promoting Christopher, then offsetting the cost using about $50,000 in TIF funds;

• Promoting Christopher but eliminating the administrative specialist position, which would reduce costs by $85,800;

• Remaining at status quo, with no promotion and no added position.

It’s these options that councilors will consider Wednesday during their 6 p.m. meeting at Gardiner City Hall. Councilors could then set dates for the final approval of the budget over the next month.

TIF funds, like the money Peabody has proposed to offset the cost of new staff, come from a program that leverages tax revenue from a defined district to fund economic development within that district. Gardiner often uses those funds for specific projects, he said, but hadn’t considered using the funds to cover economic development staff costs until this budget cycle.

With the $100,000 coming from the general fund, where most of the city’s spending comes from, Gardiner’s municipal budget would add about 30 cents to the mil rate — or about $60 to the property tax bill of a home valued at $200,000. But, Hart said, if councilors can eliminate that general fund spending, the increase would be closer to $52 for a $200,000 home.

Together, Hart said, the Gardiner-area school district’s budget and the Kennebec County budget will likely add another 60 cents to the mil rate — or about $120 in property taxes on the same $200,000 home. While the Kennebec County assessment has been determined, the Gardiner-area school district’s budget is up for a final vote on Tuesday, June 10.

Gardiner City Hall is located at 6 Church St.