Richard Michaud, City Administrator, introduced to the City Council and Mayor the Proposed City Services Budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 (July 1, 2010 - June 30, 2011) on Monday, March 15.

The City Administrator's Transmittal Letter (addressing the Council about the proposed budget and timing, per City Code) and his PowerPoint presentation to the Council are included in this month's edition of the Pepperrell Post.

The Public Notice, which is required by law so citizens know when the budget is being considered by the City Council and includes a complete line item summary of the Proposed City Service's Budget, also can be seen in this issue of the Pepperell Post - or by following the link above.

The proposed budget is for city services only. The school budget is overseen by the Regional School Unit (RSU); information on the school budget process can be found at the school site.

Although the property taxes collected by the city include the amount voted by Saco citizens to operate the Saco schools, the City Council by law does not deliberate on the school budget. The City Council only approves the city services budget. Last year, the combined budgets for the schools and city services resulted in a mil rate (tax cost per thousand dollars of property value) as follows: $7.80 for schools, $5.33 for city services and $.49 for county taxes.

Mr. Michaud's Proposed City Service Budget, if approved, would accomplish several key criteria:

• Identifies how several top City Council objectives will be completed this year and next, and what resources will be dedicated to each objective.
• Maintains the current mil rate for delivery of city services (also one of the City Council objectives) despite 4 critical increases in expenses (rising costs):
  1. Debt Service - 3 voter approved bonds: for street paving, the fire station and trails, will start being paid back in Fall 2010, and so those new expenses must be included in this budget;
  2. Healthcare - an 11% rise in the cost of health care for city employees has taken effect in January 2010;
  3. COLA - a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for city employees is included in the FY2011 budget proposal (there was no COLA in FY2010);
  4. Fuel Costs - the per gallon price for fuel that the city negotiated for FY2010 is rising by close to 50%.
• Maintains the current levels of service citizens receive, such as all city roads cleared after a winter storm within a certain time frame, or emergency response times within targets for a majority of calls for service.