By Jared Raney
Reporter

Pending full City Council approval, 2016 budget has been finalized—without raising taxes.

“In all of the time we’ve had all of these talks, and all of these meetings, the subject of tax increase never came up,” said Mark Pelletier, chairperson of the Finance, Wage & Salary Committee. “It was never even on the table this year. And I think that’s great.”

The deficit of approximately $119,000 coming into this week’s budget review meeting, following a series of budget cuts throughout city departments, will be accommodated using leftover debt service dollars and a short-term loan of approximately $60,000.

A short term loan, which would be in lieu of a small portion of already planned $2.6 million long-term borrowing, would cover small, short-term expenses such as city vehicles or maintenance equipment. The County has yet to decide exactly what the loan will fund.

The debt service balance came out higher than expected after the Committee cut $20,000 for a parking lot replacement that they believed was misplaced. An offer for purchase is allegedly on the table for the parking lot in question and the expenditure should have gone through the Parking Advisory Board, according to Council members.