JAY – The Selectboard unanimously approved a mil rate increase of $1.50 from $15.75 to total $17.25 per $1,000 worth of property at a special meeting Tuesday afternoon. The rate represents a 9.5 percent increase over the last 2014/15 fiscal year.
The major reason for the increase is the depreciation of the Verso Androscoggin Mill.
The appraisal of the Verso Mill in Jay fell by $223 million from a total valuation in 2013 of $815 million to the abated appraisal of $592 million in 2014. The town’s 2013 tax rate was set at $14 per $1,000 worth of property and in 2012 was $13.75.
The 2014-15 fiscal year mil rate increased by $1.75 to total $15.75 per $1,000 worth of property.
The mill’s taxable valuation this year, as of April 1, is $572 million, down by $20 million from the previous year, and does not take into account the recent announcement by the paper-making company that it is reducing its workforce by 40 percent when it lays off 300 workers and shuts down the No. 1 pulp dryer and the No. 2 paper machine in this year’s fourth quarter.
At Tuesday’s meeting, the Selectboard was given eight choices for setting the tax rate by Paul Binette, an assessor of O’Donnell Associates for the town of Jay. Each rate increased the amount of overlay, an amount mostly used to cover the mill’s tax abatement costs, along with other minor, unexpected undesignated fund balance needs.
The selectboard chose the middle ground from the lowest mil increase choice of $17.15 for an overlay total of $11,704.86 to the highest mil rate offered of $17.50 for a $301,264.60 overlay total.
Raising the tax rate to $17.25 per $1,000 worth of property or $1,725 per $100,000 property valuation, will result in an overlay total of $94,436,07.
“It’s a big increase,” Binette said of the rate increase.
The first of two tax payments is due on Oct 1 and the second on April 1.
going to be more empty houses in jay and only going to get worse.
When is the meeting that will suggest the cuts of services and positions on this runaway train
The days of guys plowing roads Jay for larger salaries than adjacent town’s teachers earnings may finally be over.. Welcome to the real world
The golden egg is finally broken, Now the town and school dept. will need to decide what is important and what is not because the taxpayers are not going to be happy with their tax bill. I know I am not and will have to dig deep to pay for the increase. As retired folks, our income doesn’t go up with the increase in taxes and other costs. It can only get worse as the mill shuts down machines.
I feel bad for the taxpayers of Jay with the mill laying off 300 people and having to give Verso paper all the tax rebates over the last few years. Which I do not think they should be granted tax rebates as it not the taxpayers fault they think they should get tax rebates every year because their equipment is depriciating they should keep it up to in good repair. How are people supposed to pay the taxes if there are no job anywhere. There are a lot of homes for sale and there will be more and foreclosures to because one cannot pay if they have no income. Years ago when my son went into the military he said he would never come back to Maine to live because there were no good paying job and when he got out of the military in 1982 he stayed in Colorado before passing away in 1993. I believe his prediction was right
Not sure why it is always the school budget that people want to hit first! The school budget is in line with other towns around us! If not lower than most. It is the town budget that we desperately need to look at! I cannot understand why people keep voting in a 5 to 6 million dollar budget when surrounding towns like LF and Wilton are voting on 2 to 3 million dollar budgets! What the heck are we doing so differently? Our town is overstaffed in many many areas. I don’t want to see people lose their jobs however, this town is going to be a ghost town sooner than later if we don’t cut our town budget in half! People will soon be choosing between food heat or paying their taxes. If Livermore Falls can get by with less than half of the people we employ in the town of Jay both on their highway crew and town office I think we can make changes!
As far as the school budget goes We have options of educating our kids and making them feel as if they are an important part of our communities or we can continue with the welfare train. Do they need everything no but if anyone took the time to visit our schools you would see that they certainly don’t have it all! We had the option of not voting for new bleachers. Everyone always listens to the budget committee instead of voting with their pocketbook!
I think people in our town are afraid to speak up. Maybe it is time to going back to secret ballot voting on everything so people won’t be afraid to vote smartly!!!!
We should have seen this coming several years ago.
Verso has asked for rebate from the town because their profit has not been as high as they like.
Look at their stock, worth only .21 cents today.
The town of Jay can and must cut their budiet down.
Other towns have done it.
It has always been known that Jay has been the richest town in Franklin county.
I say…cut….cut every line item in next year’s budget.
Also the school could go with less and still give our kids a good eduation.
If you don’t like what you see going on, go and vote.
Do not complain at home, you will not be heard.
I believe it is time to go back to secret ballots at our town meetings. Good folks work for the town but I, along with others, am at the end of what I can afford. What will the elderly do now? Skimp on food or heat? My biggest yearly financial obligation is to my town taxes. I will be paying almost 4,500 hundred dollars to live on my property and am retired. I ask for nothing from the town office. My cars are registered on line. I purchase my fishing and hunting license on line as do my family. I own several four wheel trucks for inclement weather and will gladly take my trash to the bottom of Jay Hill. I will gladly pay for education if it is of quality. The past few years our report card by the Department of Education as been somewhat dismal. Our town is heading down to a train wreck., as Millinocket did, if we do nothing.
Tom, we do secret ballot at all our town meetings.
Special meetings we don’t.
We need to hold a special session and reduce and eliminate town positions. Services should be combine like the schools were; police, fire, public works, and even town officials. Sad but truth is it will get worse before it gets better…
I agree with Jay taxpayer that the school budget is not the biggest problem, as that is shared with Livermore and Livermore Falls.
Our town budget is out of control. We have more personnel in every department than towns many times our size. This includes the town office staff, the road crew, the police department, the town landfill/garbage pick up. You name it we are overstaffed — and our salary and benefit package is way too generous. We offer a Cadillac health insurance benefit to anyone and everyone who works for the town along with their families. There is little cost to the employee. At least the school kicks off spouses who have health insurance somewhere else.
No one likes to see anyone loose their job or take a cut in pay and benefits, but those of us left paying the bill need some relief.
And please when contract negotiations come up, do not give any pay increases and take control of the benefit packages. It can be done.
Maybe we can shut all the street light off. That’ll be sufficient. Thats the mentality we’re accustomed to. Maybe we need new representation.
Why is it our school that is always the first to be brought up? You can blame the town manager, the selectmen, or the budget committee , but bottom line it is the voter who should be blamed for our high town budget. With such small turn outs, the budget flies right by.I would hate to have to fill their shoes and be dumped on all the time. Wake up taxpayers and take responsibility for what the town spends. Help them with suggestions and support them. Town officials please accept the suggestions with an open mind. We all need to work together to make this work…..
Typical government behavior whether it be federal, state, or town is to always raise taxes to carry on with everything that’s been added over the years. The citizens work their way up first blaming education and to cut teachers because they don’t think they’re doing a good job raising their kids for them when their only job is supposed to be to educate, the towns threaten to cut police and fire and make us worried for our safety and we all want to be safe so we go with the increases but still complain about our education budget and now the police and fire budget too ,and the state and federal level seem to carry on with the same people getting in office year after year (republican or democrat it doesn’t matter), increase taxes to pay for the raise they just gave themselves. While state employees wages have been frozen for years now, a whole other topic. It’s the same thing over and over as though police, fire, and education are the only things towns have going on. Changes can be made to try to keep everyone employed. Stop blaming teachers for our budget issues, stop threatening to cut police and fire. The biggest problem is usually the ones making the decisions on who gets cut, are usually the ones who should be cut.
Getting sorry we chose to live here. Why isn’t there the “option” of cutting the budget by 10%? The only options were how much of an increase in taxes. Maybe it should be town law that the mil rate stays fixed and the town government adjusts its spending according to what they are taking in. Funny, that’s what the rest of us have to do.