New city mayor starts term with tax pledge

Tom Blake, unanimously elected mayor of South Portland
by his fellow councilors, hands off a congratulatory gavel
 to his predecessor, Patti Smith, during inauguration
ceremonies Monday at City Hall.

SOUTH PORTLAND — Although his inaugural address Monday struck an air of cooperation and goodwill, South Portland’s new mayor may have signaled conflict to come in the spring if he gets his way on municipal taxes.

Retired city firefighter Tom Blake, now in his sixth year on the council, was unanimously selected by his pears to be mayor, a post he previously held in 2009. During his 11-minute-long acceptance speech, Blake outlined five goals for the coming year, including passage of a bond for a new public works garage, along with the potentially mutually exclusive desire to hold property tax bills to a 1 percent increase.

“There are a number of areas I that would like to see the council address in this upcoming year and absolutely No. 1 is our tax rate,” said Blake. “We must be as diligent as possible in keeping our tax rate down and strive for an increase as close to 1 percent as possible.

“It is my sense that our taxpayers simply cannot pay more,” he added.

South Portland’s $72 million general fund budget, which includes municipal operations, public education and county taxes, is up $2.75 million, or 3.97 percent, from last year. After projected increases in non-tax revenue, the need from taxpayers jumped $1.89 million, or 3.49 percent. That drove the property tax rate up 40 cents to $16.50 per $1,000 of valuation, based on a citywide assessment of $3.37 billion.

The resulting 2.48 percent hike in property taxes meant an extra $74 paid this year by the owner of the median home in South Portland, assessed at $195,000 (with a $10,000 Homestead Exemption), for a total tax bill to that household of $3,053.

For Blake’s 1 percent line to hold, assuming no change in state and federal education subsidies ($3.7 million) and non-property tax revenue ($9.6 million) – both seemingly tall orders in the “fiscal cliff” era – South Portland’s general fund budget for FY 2014 could add no more than 16.5 cents to the tax rate. That would still add another $30.52 to the tax bill on the median home in the city.

What makes Blake’s goal an especially tough hill to climb is that city Finance Director Greg L’Heureux already has projected a tax rate increase of 18 cents per $1,000 of valuation based on the first $2.52 million bond payment on the high school renovation project, although it is unclear whether Blake includes in his goal the increase due to the school project or is speaking about a 1 percent increase in addition to the impact of the school bond.

In other words, the city has overshot Blake’s goal by 1.5 cents per $1,000 of valuation before adding $1 to a single salary line, or the possibility of a new public works garage, which Blake and other city leaders are eyeing for voter approval next November.

Blake did seem to sense a looming budget battle, however, in calling for cuts to the proposed public works complex. That project, pegged by the city’s contracted engineering firm, Sebago Technics, at $18 million, would bring public works, transportation and parks departments together under one 97,800-square-foot roof off Highland Avenue, where the transfer station is located.

“We must bring that figure down, or we must do some phasing,” said Blake, leaving no doubt that he nonetheless supports the overall goal of vacating the city’s outdated garage on O’Neil Street by adding, “Investment now means long-term stability, efficiencies and improved services.”

The key to securing voter approval, said Blake, will be “maximum public input” into the planning process before a proposal is sent to referendum.

Blake’s four remaining goals – regionalizing public transportation, creating an endowment fund for parks maintenance, looking “outside the box” for new revenue, and merging services with the school department – may help to mitigate the apparent unlikelihood of his 1 percent pledge.

Calling South Portland’s existing public transportation system “inefficient and costly,” Blake encouraged nascent efforts to create a regional system by combining existing bus services in the greater Portland area.

“I would like to see a South Portland citizen who works in Windham get there easier and faster than he does now,” said Blake.

Blake first called for an endowment fund in September 2011, when it became clear the Liberty Ship Memorial in Bug Light Park was in need of a facelift. A trust fund set up for maintenance of the memorial, donated by the widow of a former liberty shipyard worker, had just $25,000 available. The City Council ultimately authorized $37,718 for work initially estimated at $70,000 estimate.

Blake noted then that since the 1970s, South Portland had inherited many parks and memorials, often without much, if anything at all, given for ongoing maintenance, creating a cumulative drain on resources. Examples, he said, include Wilkinson Park, Hinckley Park, Spring Point Shoreway, the Greenbelt Trail, Bug Light Park, the Redbank Air Disaster Memorial and the Mill Creek Park Service Memorial, in addition to the Liberty Ship Memorial. Blake also pointed to a vacant waterfront lot on Elm Street, given two years ago as a tax write-off for the owner, which is still not utilized by the city.

“The expense of this [donation] movement is increasing faster than the necessary revenues required to even maintain the current status,” said Blake. “I fear in the future we will be forced to forego these extras in life that make South Portland as appealing as we are.”

Blake called on creation of an endowment fund, last addressed by the council in a June workshop, “not as a replacement of taxes, but as an enhancement and supplement of taxes.”

In calling for “outside-the-box” revenue ideas, Blake noted that South Portland has been without an economic development director since August, when Erik Carson resigned two weeks after being placed on administrative leave. That move came roughly six months after Carson was relieved of his duties as assistant city manger. Neither Human Resources Director Don Brewer nor City Manager Jim Gailey has ever said why either action against Carson was taken.

A former development director himself, Gailey has assumed Carson’s duties, saying he would post the opening after rewriting its job description. Blake called on that draft to come sooner, rather than later.

“A smooth and efficient operation requires more than minimal staffing to keep it moving forward and our citizens safe, healthy and with the amenities and necessities that they expect today,” he said. “We need to fill this position quickly with an individual who can wear numerous hats, who thinks all the time about community outreach and economic expansion.

“This is an excellent opportunity to evolve South Portland and the branding and marketing of our community while continuing on the road to sustainability and economic stability,” said Blake, of the need to fill the vacant position.

Finally, Blake welcomed an increasing trend of handholding between the City Council and the school board.

“This is critically important, since the better that relationship and the communication, the better our city’s students are served,” he said. “We must discuss possible merger and consolidation ideas to save costs.”

Last year, South Portland completed a merger of school and city IT services. At a recent joint meeting of city councilors and school directors, a number of additional cooperative efforts were broached, including fleet maintenance and snow plowing.

New school board Chairman Rick Carter, also elected Monday, continued that theme during his address. Although he, too, welcomed a thaw in past tensions between city and schools, Carter made it clear that his side harbors concerns beyond the bottom line.

“As a society, there is nothing we do that is more important than the education of our children,” he said.

Now in his ninth year on the school board, Carter previously sat as chairman in 2007, 2009 and 2010, and as vice chairman in 2011 and 2012.

“In that time I have witnessed tremendous challenge, change and growth,” he said, noting that the city’s elementary school population has increased 15 percent in the last decade, bucking a statewide trend of declining enrollments.

“I couldn’t be prouder that South Portland once again is a school system where parents want their kids,” he said. “We have become an education destination.”

Three incumbent school board members – Tappan Fitzgerald, James Gilboy and Richard Matthews – were sworn in to new terms to 2015 Monday. Fitzgerald and Matthews ran unopposed, while Gilboy won a write-in campaign when no candidate emerged for the seat from which he’d initially meant to retire. Mary House also was sworn in to following her appointment last week by the City Council to the at-large seat vacated by Jeffrey Selser. She will serve until November, when a special election will be held to fill the final year on Selser’s term.

Meanwhile, two new councilors took their seats Monday after taking the oath of office. Former Town Clerk Linda Cohen ran unopposed for the District 4 seat while Melissa Linscott unseated Rosemarie De Angelis to represent District 3.