On March 27, as Wiscasset's budget committee and the selectmen continued their work, funding of $20,000 for the comprehensive plan project was made its own article. The money would fund a facilitator. Also its own warrant article were funds for the downtown restroom project. And one warrant article will be for a part-time planner through Lincoln County Regional Planning Commission, for $28,700 without benefits, with  a possible partial offset by  TIF funds earmarked for economic development.

According to the budget, $21,000 would be needed once for the restroom project,  and $17,500 a year would be needed for electricity, water, sewer and cleaning.

As it stands, the budget is up about seven percent, to $12,140.59. Select board chair Judy Colby did not feel that was a reasonable increase. But she said some items could not be decreased. More than half the proposed budget is out of the board’s hands: School appropriation is expected to be about $6 million, county taxes are about $623,500, debt service is about $243,000, and the TIF arrangement is $231,644.

Some funding is based on contracts. That leaves about $5,ooo,ooo or less the town can determine, but much of that is in salaries and payroll taxes, many of which are based on union contracts. Some funding can’t be cut due to state and federal law, while other funds are still fluid, based on contracts not yet firm.

Colby said she would like Town Manager John O’Connell to take three percent off the top of the funds that can be changed. Selectman Ben Rines Jr. suggested doing away with the restroom project altogether and taking three percent off after that was out of the budget.  Colby said that she was unhappy with the idea of adding new personnel, especially full-time personnel that required benefits while the town was in financial difficulties. Rines and other selectmen agreed with that view.

O’Connell said removing funding would be a temporary solution because eventually the costs to do a project would increase and the town wouldn’t be likely to save funds. The cost to hire new employees would also likely increase as minimum wage costs go up and insurance costs rise annually. However, he agreed to attempt to remove three percent of the budget that can be manipulated and come up with numbers to look at.

On Monday, April 1, O'Connell acknowledged he was unable to decrease the budget by that amount. Although he removed $73,774 from the budget, mostly from updated information from the transfer station and some deferral of new employee costs in the police station and parks and recreation, the figure reduced was slightly more than half a percent, for an increase in the overall budget of 1.69 percent.

In his letter to selectmen, O'Connell said the budget had been cut numerous times after much discussion with the selectmen, budget committee members and department heads.

"While one of our goals is to provide financial stability among our departments, we are reaching the point where our employees are feeling uncertainty and morale is being adversely affected," he wrote.

O'Connell said Wiscasset has to plan for the future, review how it is operating, decide what municipal services it wishes to provide, and what the taxpayers are willing and able to support, acknowledging that the choices may be hard.

Among the options are continuing to raise property taxes; draw on reserves; reduce spending further; raise user fees; reduce municipal services; liquidate assets; defer spending and maintenance; seek more grant funding; or consider short-term borrowing.

If no reserves are added to reduce taxes, the tax bill will rise 5.46 percent; if $200,000 is used to reduce taxes, taxes will go up 3.23 percent; if $300,000 is used to reduce taxes, taxes will rise 2.12 percent.

By taking the maximum draw from the reserve fund of 4.5 percent, and paying for contracted items in the capital budget, the amount available to be used for tax relief is $255,808, with nothing for additional capital improvements, including paving projects already scheduled.

Treasurer Vernice Boyce said there are unspent funds in the capital budget from last year, and it may be possible to ask voters to release those unspent funds for tax relief. She said she would have figures by the next budget meeting on April 3.