AUGUSTA — Kennebec County residents will pay less than an additional $100,000 in property taxes to support county operations under a budget being proposed by commissioners.
The total draft budget for the 2014 fiscal year is just under $10.7 million. Commissioners plan to use $1.3 million from other sources, such as registry of deeds and probate fees, to reduce the tax rate on the county’s communities. More than $9.39 million will have to be raised in local property taxes, which is about $86,000 more than this year. That is a 0.8 percent increase from the $9.3 million raised in 2013.
“I think this is the tightest budget I’ve ever presented,” Kennebec County Administrator Robert Devlin said.
A pair of public hearings on the budget have been scheduled for May. The first will take place at 6 p.m. May 22 at Hill House, the county building on State Street in Augusta. The second hearing is set for 6 p.m. May 29 in the City Council chambers at Waterville City Hall.
The county budget would draw less funding from a third of the county’s 30 communities because of decreasing property valuations. The biggest benefactor would be Unity Township, where the county budget share would fall 13 percent to $3,600 in 2014. Randolph residents’ bill would decrease 2.6 percent, for a total of $84,000.
Chelsea would pay the largest increase, a jump of 7.8 percent to $147,000.
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