The Scarborough Police Union has agreed to forgo its next contractual cost-of-living raise to help the town cope with an estimated $375,000 shortfall in property tax revenues.

“We respect and appreciate the citizens of Scarborough and understand the difficulty many folks are having in these tough economic times,” said John Gill, president of the Scarborough Police Benevolent Association. “By voluntarily forgoing our pay raise this year, we’re recognizing the financial difficulties many people in Scarborough are having.”

In late February, Town Manager Tom Hall asked the three municipal unions – police, dispatch, and fire and paramedic – to forgo their 3.5 percent cost-of-living raises. Hall is still in talks with the other two unions, he said.

Hall said he has not broken out figures for each group, but said if all municipal employees – union as well as non-union – give up cost-of-living raises for the next fiscal year, the town will save approximately $259,000.

The police are currently in year one of a three-year contract with the town. The pay freeze goes into effect for year two, which begins July 1, and would be restored in year three.

The fire and paramedic union’s contracts are up this year. Hall is talking with them to negotiate a pay freeze in the first year of a new contract. Dispatch is in the first year of a three-year contract.

“With the police formally agreeing on Friday I remain hopeful that the other unions will follow suit shortly,” Hall said. “There is no question that this concession and resulting savings to the budget is absolutely necessary to hold the mill rate stable.”

Scarborough has a total of 157 town employees, Hall said he is freezing pay raises for all of those employees who are not in unions.

The request to forgo raises was spurred by a slowdown in growth, Hall said.

“The town has enjoyed tremendous growth over the past few years and we’ve been averaging gains in overall assessed value of about $60 million per year,” Hall said. “We expect those gains to be cut in half this year.”

The town receives $122,000 on every $10 million of assessed property value, Hall said.

The Town Council earlier this year directed Hall to develop a municipal budget that does not raise property taxes.

Hall said freezing wages is one way the town can see real savings because it gives the town control over costs that are usually fixed, such as salaries and benefits.

Scarborough’s 2009-2010 budget will also reflect decreases in vehicle excise tax revenues, Hall said.

The town does not have solid figures for next year’s budget and does not know if it will be facing a deficit, Hall said. The current budget is $21.5 million.

Hall received the municipal department budgets last week and expects to have a proposed budget for the Town Council by the middle of next week.

“I am still waiting on figures such as insurance,” Hall said. “Also, I found in the past that, while there are timelines you need to meet, the longer you wait for budget numbers, the better the numbers are.”

Hall is also waiting to see if the school department’s five unions decide to accept wage freezes. Superintendent David Doyle is in contract talks with those unions, which represent teachers, guidance counselors, custodians, bus drivers and administrators.

The school union employees total about 400, Doyle said. Those union contracts are up and Doyle said he hopes concessions will be made to curb potential budget woes. However, he said he couldn’t go into detail about negotiations because they are taking place in closed sessions.

Hall said school unions accepting pay freezes would be a large money-saver.

“When you factor in the schools, it’s a $1 million proposition,” Hall said. “The reason I have focused on the wage concessions is to get it out there early in this process. For me to even come close to meeting the council’s mandate of not raising property taxes, I knew I needed to have these concessions.”