WESTBOOK – Officially kicking off last week in the public eye, city officials are at work on the fiscal year 2014-15 budget, which means a series of meetings to vet the projected municipal budget of $23,430,350.

Mayor Colleen Hilton prefaced the budget discussions by stating that year after year, budgets have become increasingly challenging, but that she believes Westbrook has struck a balance between retaining services and keeping a steady tax rate.

“In looking back over the past four budgets developed by my administration, I believe we have successfully maintained that critical balance,” she said. “For three of the last four fiscal years, the tax rate has either seen no change, or an actual reduction.”

Hilton said for the upcoming year’s budget, the city is facing “old and new” challenges, including losses in state municipal revenue sharing, an increase in residents receiving general assistance, and public safety overtime costs that have necessitated the hiring of four additional full-time firefighters.

Hilton also said this winter was one of the most challenging for the Westbrook Public Works department in more than a decade.

The total spending increase proposed for the municipal budget is $300,366, with an anticipated increase in revenues of $160,586. The city budget represents a 1.03-percent increase over the previous year’s budget. Due to an increase in city valuation, the tax rate will actually fall by 7 cents per $1,000 valuation.

The school department has not yet released projected revenues, but has initially submitted a budget of $34.8 million, which would be a 7.76 increase from this year. Reflected in the tax rate, that would be an increase of $1.36 per $1,000 valuation.

Hilton praised Westbrook state representatives Drew Gattine and Ann Peoples for their help in defeating Gov. Paul LePage’s proposed cut to municipal revenue sharing, which would have doubled the cuts from this year. For fiscal year 2013-14, Westbrook lost roughly $600,000 in revenue sharing, which comes from state income and sales tax. If LePage’s proposal had been approved by the Legislature, Westbrook would have lost an additional $600,000.

City Administrator Jerre Bryant presented the projected budget to the City Council March 3. Starting with its meeting March 10, the council will review the budget line by line during a series of finance committee meetings featuring presentations by all city department heads.

Bryant said the city’s revenues still show healthy growth, especially considering this year’s losses in revenue sharing. He also shared with the council that the City of Westbrook was recently upgraded in its financial rating from Standard & Poor’s ratings services on general obligation bonds, which reflects an assessment by Standard & Poor’s rating agency on Westbrook’s economy. The city’s rating jumped two notches from A+ to AA.

City Councilor Michael Foley thanked the administration for putting together the budget so quickly following the announcement on revenue sharing.

“We have been under the gun the last week or so, along with all the city departments, so we appreciate their work in getting the budget submitted on the deadline we set as a goal,” he said.

On Monday, the City Council’s Finance Committee held the first of three meetings on the municipal budget. The Finance Committee meets again this Saturday at 8 a.m. and April 14 at 6:30 p.m.

At the first meeting, the heads of public safety, engineering, public works and other departments made presentations. Chief Michael Pardue, director of Westbrook’s police and fire/EMS departments, outlined that in response to the fire department’s overtime costs over the last few years, the department will hire four additional full-time firefighters.

Pardue said his proposal to increase the full-time staff from 28 to 32 would decrease hours for per-diem staff. He said in the past, full-time staff was increasingly covering per-diem shifts, causing the increases in overtime pay.

Tom Eldridge, Westbrook’s director of Public Services, outlined the difficulty of this winter, which has led to the department to run over budget with overtime. He said that from all six departments included in Public Services, there is a 1.6-percent increase from this year.

The school Finance Committee meets next on March 22 at 8 a.m. and concludes its budget discussions on April 2 at 6 p.m.

Bryant said all discussions are open to the public and that public input is encouraged. The events are also televised on Westbrook TV.