Lebanon
All nine councilors were present for the vote, which was made before a room of city department heads and employees. No one from the public spoke during the budget hearing beforehand.
Lebanon’s property tax rate is expected to rise in 2017 as a result of the budget increase. City officials said a previous proposal would have resulted in an additional 36 cents per $1,000 of a property’s valuation, which would amount to an additional $90 in taxes on a property valued at $250,000.
Although the council made several amendments to that proposal during Wednesday’s meeting, Lebanon Finance Director Len Jarvi said he expects little change to the tax rate estimate.
Much of the 2017 budget increase can be attributed to debt and costs associated with infrastructure projects, according to city officials. About $1.6 million in new funding is needed to cover debt payments in 2017, bringing the total amount due to $7.6 million.
“We are faced with having to meet the needs of today while planning for the future, and at the same time, cleaning up whatever may be left over from the past,” City Councilor Karen Liot Hill said during the meeting.
Overall, the city is expected to have more than $89 million in debt by the end of 2017, stemming largely from the “combined sewer overflow,” or CSO, projects, a federally mandated effort to separate sewer and storm water in about 15 miles of Lebanon’s sewer system.
Construction on the CSO is estimated to cost the city about $69 million by the time the work is complete, and roughly $66 million will be bonded.
Other infrastructure efforts adding to the debt include road construction, the Route 120 sewer improvement project and work on Lebanon’s waste water treatment facility.
City Councilors also lamented the amount of money going toward funding the Lebanon Municipal Airport. The airport’s budget is $1.2 million in 2017, about $34,000 less than current year’s spending.
But councilors weren’t pleased that the airport isn’t paying for itself; About $147,000 needed to come from city coffers to keep operations going.
“I am appalled at this number,” said Councilor Erling Heistad. “I’d much rather see those funds going into other programs that we support in the city.”
Liot Hill also voiced frustration about the budget, but said recent efforts to craft a business plan and lease hangar space should someday have the airport paying for itself. By approving the budget on Wednesday night, the council also approved airport spending.
As they fine tuned the budget, councilors also worried about proposed cuts to area nonprofits. Instead of making cuts, though, they voted 6-3 to restore about $17,000 in aid.
The measure brings funding back for the city’s most vulnerable, including the homeless or those seeking substance abuse treatment, according to Councilor Bruce Bonner.
“This is for the neediest folks in the community,” said Liot Hill, agreeing to the additional spending. “Their needs seem to be becoming greater.”
City officials initially proposed cutting the money as part of a new criteria adopted to better evaluate how social service agencies are working in Lebanon, according to Interim City Manager Paula Maville.
The cuts were slated to eliminate support from both Tri-County CAP and the TLC Family Resource Center, while also slashing $30,000, or half, of aid to Headrest.
The cut to Headrest was in part due to a change in the nonprofit’s services, said Interim Executive Director Hilde Ojibway on Wednesday. In the past, the city could rely on Headrest to act as an emergency housing shelter, but now a record of treatment is needed to stay at the substance abuse program, she said.
“We understood their reasoning,” Ojibway said. “There’s other organizations that we work with that will receive (money).”
Maville said it’s unlikely funds will be restored to Tri-County CAP and the TLC Family Resource Center, which were both completely eliminated in the earlier proposal. Instead, she plans to work with social service organizations who met the city’s criteria to discuss possibly increasing their share of funding.
Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.