The preliminary $54 million Biddeford municipal budget proposal for the 2027 fiscal year represents about a 12.5% increase over this year’s spending plan.
The proposal, nearly $6 million more than the current budget, is only a “rough overview” of the possible fiscal year 2027 budget, City Manager Truc Dever said at a budget committee meeting Tuesday night.
The budget reflects early projections on revenue and estimated expenditures, and doesn’t take into account county taxes, fiscal year 2024 and 2025 audits, and the proposed school budget, which will be presented on March 17.
County taxes, Dever said, are not typically released until early summer.
The budget also does not include the city’s Tax Increment Financing fund, Housing Trust fund, and other funds.
According to Dever, the cost of city personnel is the major driver for the 2027 budget. Personnel costs represent $33.8 million of the preliminary proposal, up from $29.8 million last year.
“We’re in the business of people,” Dever said Tuesday. “We have people facing the public, and that’s where most of our dollars are going to go.”
Projected city revenue is also down from $17.4 million last year to $17 million this year, representing a 1.8% decrease that could negatively impact the city’s budget, Dever said.
Other factors driving the increase in the proposed budget include a cost-of-living adjustment for non-union city employees, increased benefits for city staff in general, and increased overtime for Biddeford Police Department employees.
The proposed budget also includes funding for a new program dubbed “Wellness on Wheels,” an alternative response initiative that would address Biddeford residents’ non-emergency health, behavioral health and social service-related calls.
The program would be staffed by trained EMTs and would cost just over $200,000 for its first year. It would also call for an additional 3.5 emergency response employees.
“This will relieve pressure on the police department and fire EMS department by diverting non-criminal, non-emergent calls to a team better equipped for compassionate care, de-escalation, risk education and resource navigation,” Dever said.
City councilors were concerned about the budget increase Tuesday night. Councilor Marc Lessard noted that the budget had increased approximately 24% over four years, an increase that he said taxpayers cannot afford.
“I don’t know that anyone could absorb that increase,” he said.
Lessard also said this will be the “toughest” budget season he has faced in his 23 years serving on the council.
“We need to come in with our A-game to figure it out,” Lessard said.
The municipal budget discussion will continue in April with the first reading of the budget.
Biddeford’s preliminary spending plan up 12.5%
