Errors, fixes don’t change Alna’s tax rate, Wiscasset Newspaper, October 29, 2009

Errors, fixes don’t change Alna’s tax rate

By SUSAN JOHNS

Staff Reporter

Alna First Selectwoman Billie Willard has refigured this year’s tax commitment, to fix a pair of errors. However, the two adjustments - one in education, the other in revenues - offset each other, Willard said. So, the mill rate will stand at the original $22.15 per thousand dollars of valuation.

"The tax bills are correct," Willard said. She wanted to make sure residents understand that, because, she said, rumors around town have suggested there were changes that would lead to everyone receiving a rebate.

She said she wished that was true.

Willard discussed her errors and the recommitment in a telephone interview last week.

She said that when she first did the commitment in September, she didn’t calculate education costs according to the different fiscal years on which the town and the new Sheepscot Valley Regional School Unit run. The RSU’s fiscal year starts July 1, while Alna’s starts February 1, the selectwoman noted.

Willard said it was former selectman John Green who spotted the error.

Willard’s subsequent refiguring dropped by about $131,000 the amount to be raised for education, from the original, approximately $861,000, to about $730,000, Willard said.

Then, in taking a complete look at the commitment, Willard realized her figures were too high in "other revenues," such as interest income. That figure was revised down, by about $130,000, she said. "Strangely enough," she said, the two corrections, together, kept the tax rate the same.

The rumor about checks coming from the town for overpaid taxes was not the only one Willard wanted to dispel. She said some people are claiming the selectmen timed the tax commitment to hurt the chances of the RSU budget being passed.

Willard said she has been saying since last March that the commitment would be in mid-September. It’s been done around the same time for four years now, she said.

Willard said the selectmen will be looking for ways to bring down Alna’s education costs in the future.

"It may be a drop in the bucket," she said of any changes. "But enough drops in the bucket may fill the bucket and drop us a mill."

The town still doesn’t know how much of a surplus it will have to carry over from last year’s education funds. A surplus of $50,000 was applied to this year’s education costs, to offset taxes; but Willard said an audit could still show the figure is higher. If it is, the money will be available to offset next year’s taxes, she said.