GARDINER -- Councilors will know how the local property revaluation will impact taxpayers at their June 18 meeting so they can move ahead with the final budget.

Councilors at their June 4 meeting delayed hearing the first reading of a resolution that establishes taxing and spending for city services until they received more information on the revaluation.

Residents received letters this week with their new property values and projected tax rate, which City Manager Jeff Kobrock said is projected to be $16.90 per $1,000 worth of property valuation. The current tax rate is $21.8.

Kobrock said Curt Lebel, the city assessor, started looking at the revaluation data after the June 4 meeting in an effort to address councilors’ questions.

Unfortunately, the delay will push adoption of the budget beyond the start of the new fiscal year, which begins on July 1 and ends June 30, 2009. City Manager Jeff Kobrock said the second and final reading of the resolution to establish taxing and spending for city services won’t be until June 25.

“Then it takes 10 days to become effective and those 10 days will go over into the next fiscal year,” Kobrock said. “There is a way to set that 10-day period aside by a vote of the council, but I think that would be relatively unusual.”

--Mechele Cooper