Minot News Corner

Submitted by Danielle Loring,
Minot Town Administrator
I am pleased to announce that the Minot Board of Selectmen has scheduled the 2021 Town Meeting for 9 a.m. Saturday, April 17, which will be held in the Minot Consolidated School Gymnasium. The Warrant is available at the Town Office or by going to www.minotme.org [1]. Though the event will go on as in years past, there will be some changes given the current restrictions and guidelines for indoor events. These guidelines will be published and available by April 10. We ask that anyone attending look at these in advance and be patient with staff and other community members as we convene for Town business.
In addition to the paving bond that I reviewed in March’s Country Connection, there are many important items that will be discussed at Town Meeting. Among these are a handful of ordinance revisions and the Town’s budget. As presented in the warrant the proposed budget has a net increase of 1.29% or roughly $22,000, including the passage of the paving bond. The Selectmen, Budget Committee, Department Heads, and I worked to offset any necessary increases with adjustments to keep the budget balanced without compromising services.
I can appreciate that the primary concern with any budget is what its impact will be to property taxes. It is a balancing act between the known, budgeted expenses as well as anticipated revenues. When the Town accepted budget at the 2020 Town Meeting, I would not have guessed that, by the end of the month, the State would be shut down and that the list of unknowns would far exceed the knowns. However, we were able to reduce our expenses, delay projects and apply for any funding source we could and ended the year in the positive.
Moving into 2021, the Town Officials and I are cautiously optimistic that our revenue trends have balanced out, and we can make better projections to safeguard the Town’s interests. When we come together to set the mill rate in July, we take into consideration the Town’s approved budget, the County taxes and RSU 16’s payments as the known expenses. From this amount, we deduct all on-hand funding such as carry forwards and designated funds like Local Roads Assistance Program (LRAP) payments. We then look at consistent revenue trends, specifically Excise Tax and Revenue Sharing, and then estimate what we are likely to collect and deduct that to leave the remainder that must be collected with taxes.
These numbers are further adjusted to account for the overlay (the amount that is collected to offset revenue shortfalls and nonpayment of taxes) and the use of Undesignated Fund Balance (UFB), or surplus, to bring down the tax rate. Minot is unique in that it operates on a calendar fiscal year and collects taxes for that budget at the end of the year in December. This means that discretion must be used when utilizing UFB funds for tax purposes or the Town could experience a cash shortfall and need to take out an emergency loan to offset losses, otherwise known as a Tax Anticipation Note (TAN).
Though there are many moving parts to this, I wanted to give a general idea of what goes into setting the tax rate. The Town is always looking for better ways to serve its community and keep the tax rate consistent, and the Town Budget is small part of a bigger picture. We hope that you will join us on April 17 to learn more about what is going on in Town and participate in its legislative process. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to staff, and we will be happy to assist you.
Links: —— [1] www.minotme.org