What happens to budget when free money is gone

To the editor,

I am writing about Scarborough’s budget for the coming year, just approved by our Town Council on Wednesday, May 26.

Taxpayers in Scarborough can expect to see an increase in their tax bills this coming year of about 2.1%. The Council exceeded its goal of delivering an increase of less than 3%.

We got to the 2.1% tax increase because our revenues have increased, not because cuts were made to the proposed budget. It feels like it’s been raining money. Every time we turn around, we hear about more money coming from somewhere — Federal and State COVID money, state revenue sharing, general purpose state aid for education, fees for permits, excise taxes up again.

Our net budget — the part paid for with property taxes — is increasing 4%. But don’t let that low figure fool anyone because our gross spending is up 12% this year. That is the total we spend. We are spending $113MM this year compared to last year’s $101MM. We are bonding something like $9.2 MM worth of stuff —no new buildings or new projects — just things like school buses, furniture, paving and pick-up trucks. These bonded items don’t count when we calculate the tax rate for property taxes. But we have to pay the price sooner or later. Our debt payments will now be approaching 16% of our net budget. For every one dollar of property tax money, 16 cents goes to that revolving charge card.

At the end of the day, yes, I am happy that my taxes will only go up 2% this year. But I am very worried about what happens when all the free money goes away, and we taxpayers will be called on to make up the difference.

Susan Hamill
Scarborough