Windham municipal budget approval heads to voters

Voters in Windham will accept or reject a budget of $32
million during the Annual Town Meeting to be held at
the Windham High School auditorium next month. The 
proposed budget includes adding six rescue-emergency
staff members for the town and three capital projects
including creating new access roads, the East Windham
Conservation Area, and sewers for North Windham.
FILE PHOTO  

By Ed Pierce

One of the most important decisions in Windham history will be presented to voters during the upcoming Annual Town Meeting in June. Voters attending the meeting will approve or disapprove of a proposed $37,238,051 budget, that includes funding for three, long-range capital investments.   

Members of the Windham Town Council finalized the process of creating warrant articles for the budget during a council meeting on May 10. The proposed budget addresses capital project investments such as the North Windham Local Access Road Project; adding six new rescue-emergency medical services staff members; the creation of a North Windham Wastewater Treatment System; and acquiring more open space for the town through the addition of the East Windham Conservation Project.

“A lot of work went into this, and I hope the public grasps what we’re doing,” said Windham Town Council Chair Jarrod Maxfield. “I hope folks see they’re getting something for it. We are getting something out of this. It’s an investment for the future of Windham.”

In unveiling the proposed budget, Windham Town Manager Barry Tibbetts said that while town revenues are up $1.5 million, excise taxes, building permits and other revenues are expected to be flat or down for the coming year. He said revenue sharing from the state has been set at $2.5 million, with Windham expected to receive $1.63 million from Cumberland County.

According to Tibbetts, TIF funding for the year ahead also is expected to be flat because of anticipated expenditures for local access road funding and funds for the North Windham wastewater project. A budget of $28.7 million with increases in labor relations contracts, and general health and benefit increases coupled with a proposed RSU 14 budget increase of 4.34 percent led to the formulation of this new municipal budget, Tibbetts said.

None of the new capital projects will lead to a tax increase, Tibbetts said. Taxes could rise as much as 6 percent overall, but that is driven by the cost of adding six fire-EMS personnel, and fixed cost increases from rising electric, and fuel expenses, along with medical and dental contractual obligations, bonding, and capital equipment leases.

“It’s important to say that no residential monies are going into the access roads and because of a major grant from the state, there will be no tax hit for residents on the wastewater treatment facility,” Tibbetts said. “As far as the open space preservation in East Windham, that will be taken care of by impact fees.”

The proposed budget also would fund a number of other initiatives in Windham. Some of those include intersection engineering for River Road/Route 202; preliminary development of a Northwest Fire Station; Firewall and Switch Replacement for municipal buildings; creating a Public Safety Memorial at Windham’s Public Safety Building; records conservation; Collinwood Circle and Running Brook Development; purchase of a recreation storage container; and providing reserves for capital projects and bonding.

Tibbetts said the budget was prepared anticipating a General Inflation rate of 7.9 percent. He said that the overall CPI Net Town Increase in the proposed budget is 5.4 percent or an average estimated increase of $1 per day.

Windham’s budget for the past two years has essentially been flat with no tax increases, he said. Last year’s town budget approved by voters at the Annual Town Meeting was $34,459,803.  

Prior to the budget vote, residents will also be able to cast ballots on Maine Primary Day on Tuesday, June 14 to approve by referendum an agreement between the Town of Windham and the Portland Water District to finance the design, engineering and construction of a new sewer system serving North Windham.

The Annual Town Meeting is set for 10 a.m. Saturday, June 18 in the auditorium of Windham High School. <