August 4, 2023 at 5:40 a.m.

St. Germain board likely to ask electors for tax increase


By FRED WILLISTON
Special to the Lakeland Times

During a town board meeting on July 27, supervisors in St. Germain discussed the agenda for the town’s elector meeting this November. In all likelihood, the board will ask resident voters for their permission to raise the property-tax levy once again.

State statutes allow municipalities to increase their levies in small percentages only without voter approval. In the case of St. Germain, that permissible increase would only amount to a few thousand dollars.

Municipalities with populations of more than 3,000 people accept or reject major levy increases by referendum. Their smaller counterparts — like St. Germain — have the issue decided by resolution and a vote of the town’s electors.

Last year, electors decided by a vote of 70 to 44 to allow an increase of $200,000 for the specific purpose of road maintenance.

This year, the town may need to ask for more.

During last week’s meeting, supervisors discussed a growing list of needs which can’t currently be met by the town’s budget.

“We don’t need to decide tonight what all is going to be on it, but we do need to have some discussion, and are we going to have anything other than the normal things to approve the levy….The question is: are we going to bring up any other items for discussion with the electors?” town chairman Tom Christensen told the board

He suggested money should be raised for Department of Public Works equipment, including a new plow truck, as well as extra money for a road-replacement program.

“We know that we’re in the process of talking with the different suppliers about a replacement for our plow truck,” Christensen said. “The truck is at least a year out and we haven’t ordered it yet.”

“Maybe you want to add something in there about parks and rec(reation), since we seem to be having troubles funding that, as well?” supervisor Brian Cooper added.

Cooper suggested asking supervisor Kalisa Mortag — the chair of St. Germain’s Parks and Recreation Committee — for “an appropriate dollar-figure.” Mortag was absent from the meeting.

“It just seems like every (parks and recreation project proposal) we talk about just kind of falls off a cliff and doesn’t happen,” he said.

Town clerk June Vogel brought up the need for repairs to the town’s aging community center.

“There’s no end to this,” said supervisor Ted Ritter.

“But if you want to accomplish something, all of these funds need to be started,” Christensen replied

Ritter responded, “If we were to proceed with suggesting” increased spending to the town’s electors, “I think we would also need to suggest ‘This is what it might do to the levy’.”

Christensen replied, “I would agree with that. Before I take time to figure out the numbers, if you guys say ‘Absolutely not’, I’m not in favor of going forward at this point and I won’t bother doing it...I would do that for the equipment, and then also for the road replacements.”

Ritter reminded the board, “It was last year at the elector levy meeting that we presented the idea of a levy increase for road maintenance, and we went through a great deal of explanation about what road-maintenance is, and it was approved. And the taxpayers were levied that amount of money, but they have yet to see anything done. They have yet to learn what is going to be done with the money that was levied in 2022.”

To that, Christensen replied, “At our next meeting, you’re going to have a list of roads and what’s going to happen this fall, and that should be done by the time the levy meeting happens.”

“That’s very, very important,” Ritter said. “The question is: do we want to present to the taxpayers that same concept for additional categories of spending, any one of which would raise the levy? Part of me thinks that’s a good idea, but you may not want to have a list of more than two or three.”

“I think it’s a realistic thing that people understand that if you want improvements done, we need more money to do it; we don’t have the money in the regular budget,” Christensen said.

Vogel asked if various projects could be presented on one ballot as separate questions for November’s electors meeting.

“You want to have it itemized, so that if not all of it passes, some of it might?” Christensen asked

“Correct,” Vogel replied.

“You could have the building, the road replacement, the equipment, and…parks and rec, or whatever you want to call it,” Christensen said 

Ritter cautioned, “I would suggest we be real honest and say ‘Look; we’re telling you we don’t have enough money to do all the things that need to be done...That’s going to raise your levy. And your levy was raised last year for the road-maintenance program. Good things are happening because you approved those levy increases. We’d like to ask you if you’ll approve even more.’ Be right up-front with them.”

Vogel pointed out all of the town’s smaller spending, which adds up to big dollars.

“Part of me feels it’s more important to raise our levy to cover everyday expenses,” she said. “Because we’ve had salary increases. We’ve had electricity increases. We’ve had truck maintenance increases. The list goes on and on. And we’re really tight.”

“Every time a higher bill comes in, I get heart palpitations because we don’t want to run into trouble at the end of the year,” she added. “If we’re seeing more increases, I don’t know if we can sustain the budget for the next year, with everything we have to do. Insurance is going up. The retirement is going up next year.”

Christensen said those expenses should also be included on the November electors ballot.

“I think people will understand those things,” Ritter said. “I don’t know if they’re going to give us a blank checkbook, but we explain honestly the situation we’re in and say ‘This is your town. Are you going to help us do these things?’”

“Some people will say yes to a levy increase; some people will probably say yes to all of them. Others will say no to all of them,” he said. “It’s a matter of getting the right people at the annual meeting.”

Christensen said he favored the idea of presenting several itemized requests before the electors in November, and said “I’ll be more than happy to put the numbers together.”

“Let’s look at it,” Christensen said. 

“I support the concept,” Ritter added.

“Then we’ll put some numbers together and talk about it at the next meeting,” Christensen said. “We need to keep rolling on it so that we’re ready.” 


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