Superintendent of Schools Matt Nelson presents his revised budget figures to the City Council.
Photo: WSSR-TV
By Zendelle Bouchard
The Sanford City Council, acting in its capacity as Budget Committee, met March 24 and voted to recommended a final combined municipal and school budget for fiscal year 2026/27 reflecting an 89 cent increase to the property tax rate, which would add $332.84 to the annual tax bill for a $400,000 homestead-exempt home.
The final figures represent months of work on the city and school budgets. The City Council will vote to formally approve the municipal side of the budget on April 7. The Council will also approve the school budget at the same time, but voters get the final say in the School Budget Validation referendum vote on June 9.
Superintendent of Schools Matt Nelson presented revised figures which included cutting two proposed staff members: the assistant athletic director for Sanford High School and an administrative assistant at Sanford Middle School. A halftime custodian position is also being eliminated. Other positions that were requested, including an allied arts teacher to enable SMS to offer a foreign language program, were retained in the budget. See our previous story for more details.
To bring the budget down further, the School Department will also reduce the reserve for capital projects at SHS and use all of its special education reserves. Nelson said negotiations with the unions resulted in savings to taxpayers on health insurance, with employees agreeing to pay a larger share of the cost. The adjustments to expenses and revenue brought the school budget to a 10% net-to-taxation increase, meeting the goal set by the Council earlier this month.
On the municipal side, the recommended budget does not include a bond which would have spread the cost of several large capital expenditures over five years. City Manager Steve Buck proposed the $485,000 bond in March (see that story), but ran into resistance from Councilors Pete Tranchemontagne and Jonathan Martell. Tranchemontagne said he prefers that taxpayers “bite the bullet” this year rather than put the expense into future budgets.
The proposed tax rate reflects $29 million in new valuation, but the exact tax rate will not be calculated until after the city’s final assessment figures come in on April 1. The net-to-taxation increase for the next fiscal year is estimated at 6.52% over the current year, and the 89 cent increase in the mill rate reflects a 5.19% jump.
Those figures mean a $200,000 homestead-exempt property would see a yearly increase of $155.32, a $300,000 home’s tax bill would go up $244.08 and a $500,000 property would see a $421.59 annual bump.
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