Lebanon prop tax mil rate set at $14.90, up 40 cents

LEBANON - Despite the town continuing to dig out from a $200,000 Rescue Department deficit, selectmen were able to hold the line on taxes for the upcoming year, approving a $14.90 cent mil rate on Tuesday, just 40 cents higher than last fiscal year. The increase amounts to a 2.7 percent hike.

“I’m happy with it,” Selectmen Chairman Ben Thompson said on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the town has still not used a tax anticipation note (TAN) though they do have a million dollar credit line if town operating funds drop to unmanageable levels before property tax revenues start flowing in during October.

The new tax rate means that annual property taxes on a home appraised at $100,000 will go up $40. Those semi-annual bills should be going out in about a week.

Thompson said taxes went up based on expenditures authorized by voters during the June ballot.

Also taxes were kept in check without having to raid the general fund, which was done two years in a row by the selectboards of Karen Gerrish, Bob Frizzell and Ronal Patch (FY 11-12,); and the next year by Gerrish, Frizzell and Jason Cole (FY 12-13). Both years the two boards withdrew $300,000 to soften the mil rate blow, which would have spiked double digits without the money transfer.

Officials at both the Maine and New Hampshire municipal associations, which assist towns with financial planning and other governmental functions, said towns should have a three-month cushion in their general fund to cover fixed expenses like the $441,000 sent monthly to SAD 60.

Last year’s auditor’s report cited the town’s general fund as “unsustainable” as it had dropped to just $1.1 million.