HALLOWELL — City officials are making another run at cutting budget expenses as residents continue to raise alarms about property taxes increasing by double-digits.

During its meeting on Thursday, the Hallowell City Council directed City Manager Gary Lamb to work with department heads to create a proposal that would cut a total of $300,000 from its recently rescinded budget.

The original budget passed on July 29, combined with other expenses such as those for the school district and county, raised property taxes for residents by an average of about 20%. Residents led a petition effort to repeal the budget and limit the tax increase to 10% or less, which led the council to reverse its approval earlier this month and attempt to cut substantially more.

The council approved a $231,019 slate of cuts proposed by Mayor George Lapointe during its Aug. 12 meeting to bring the average increase down to about 12%, but reducing the tax increase to 10% would require cutting at least $289,000 in total, according to Lapointe.

Councilors on Thursday asked Lamb to work with city department heads and propose an additional reduction of about $69,000, adding up to $300,000.

About 40 residents attended Thursday’s meeting, far less than the 120 who came out to the Aug. 12 meeting.

Thursday’s meeting began with a proposal of more than $100,000 in cuts by Ward 5 Councilor Patrick Wynne. Details of those proposed cuts were not widely available to members of the public before the meeting, though, and several residents and council members expressed concerns about many of the proposals, including turning street lights off for several hours each night and reducing the number of ballistic vests available to the police department.

“Cutting public safety funding in any aspect is irresponsible, shameful and dangerous to the citizens of the city and the state and should not be considered,” said Jacob Stoddard, a Hallowell resident. “By putting funding decisions back into the hands of the department heads, such as the police and fire chiefs, I think you will find these points to be valid and accurate.”

During the council’s discussion, Councilor-at-large Maureen AuCoin said she was concerned that there was still a lack of clarity from the city’s assessor about why residents had seen such disparate increases on their taxes — some with an increase of less than 10% and some with an increase more than 25%. Property taxes are calculated based on a resident’s assessed property value.

AuCoin said she had calculated that her property taxes would still increase by 17% even after the council’s cuts on Aug. 12, which Lapointe estimated would bring the average tax increase to about 12%. She said she wanted to make sure the council was being clear in its communication with the public before making a decision on more cuts.

Lamb read a memo from the assessor during the meeting that said the property valuation increases were “very consistent,” but that residential properties were seeing a faster increase in market rate value than commercial properties. According to the assessor, he said, many of the variations residents are seeing can be explained by property tax exemptions.

“There are other factors that figure into the variance that we’re all concerned about that you’re not going to know until you get down into an individual property file,” Lamb said.

Lamb said he would work to place a summary of the assessor’s memo on the city’s website in the next several days for residents to read.

Hallowell resident Ted Perrin said during the public comment that he was alarmed and frustrated that the council still did not have clear answers for the public on the exact impact of the cuts on property taxes.

“It might not be 10% for everybody — that’s fine,” Perrin said. “But you aren’t even expressing an understanding of how it’s going to affect people. I understand there’s going to be a range. What is your plan going forward to understand this and to share it with us? And maybe before you pass a budget that’s garbage, and then have to come back and make all kinds of other cuts.”

Lisa Harvey-McPherson, who served four terms on the council until she was defeated by Wynne for the Ward 5 seat in 2018, said the $300,000 figure provided needed clarity for Lamb and city management, but not for taxpayers.

“No taxpayer in the room can walk away with a number,” Harvey-McPherson said during public comment. “And I think, given the investment of time that the community has expressed to you on this issue, it warrants clarity to the taxpayer.”

After more than an hour of discussion, the council did not make a decision on Wynne’s proposed cuts and instead voted unanimously to direct Lamb to present a newly trimmed budget at its next meeting on Monday, Sept. 9. The council directed Lamb to collaborate with city department heads and to use the $231,000 in cuts approved at the council’s last meeting as a starting point to get to the $300,000 reduction.