LEBANON — The City Council gave preliminary approval to $1.14 million in budget cuts last week after residents attending an earlier meeting left no doubt that they want a smaller budget.

The agreement on some cuts came following roughly three hours of discussion in a meeting held Thursday night at Lebanon High School about how to reduce the $93.9 million proposed budget to curb municipal tax rate increases — currently projected at 11.9%.

Councilors were quick to acknowledge at Thursday’s meeting that there would be cuts made to the proposed budget, marking a departure from the previous meeting on Dec. 4 when they declined to answer direct questions about budget cuts.

“We’re not taking the budget as presented. That’s pretty obvious, so what are we going to cut?” Councilor Doug Whittlesey asked early in discussions.

The city councilors outlined cuts they approve, reject and are still willing to consider, leaving an additional $309,000 up for consideration and rejecting $895,000 worth of line items in proposed cuts.

If approved, $1.2 million in cuts would reduce the tax rate increase to between 7% and 8%, according to councilors.

Before the City Council votes on a final budget on Wednesday, city staff will go through the prepared list and outline the feasibility of the approved cuts and their impact on city services and the overall budget. The Council will consider city staff input and public comment before its vote.

Some of the largest cuts the council agreed to support were eliminating a full-time electrical inspector position, which will be vacated in February, and two currently vacant positions; a librarian and one police patrol officer.

Mayor Tim McNamara led the charge to focus on eliminating vacant petitions.

“One thing we need to really seriously think about is limiting the growth of (full-time employees) and where we have vacant FTE positions that are currently unfilled, that to me is a logical place to start,” McNamara said.

But Councilor Chris Simon cautioned against eliminating police positions. Simon is a retired member of the Lebanon Fire Department for which additional positions are being considered.

“I think it’s very important that we have an appropriately staffed police department,” Simon said. “... I would hate to see us reduce their numbers because they are also out there backing up other services when they don’t have enough person power.”

Though it has been a major factor in ongoing budget discussions, councilors pushed the majority of conversation about firefighter staffing to the upcoming meeting on Wednesday.

Still on the table is the elimination of a second vacant police patrol position and the elimination of the full-time energy and facilities manager role currently held by Tad Montgomery.

In response to overwhelming public comment at their last meeting, councilors rejected cuts to the Recreation, Arts and Parks Department that would lead to the city outdoor pool closing. Also included in the $895,000 taken off the table were cuts to Advance Transit, snow plowing, Soldiers Memorial Building maintenance, a full-time Recreation Arts and parks position, and contributions to outside human services agencies.

Councilor George Sykes encouraged his colleagues to think about “where is the impact for the dollars that are being cut out.”

“I would love to see my tax bill go down, but I also don’t want my tax bill to go down on the backs of the people who are least able to be here to speak and support the things they have for needs,” Sykes said.

Councilors Devin Wilkie and Karen Liot Hill agreed with Sykes. With this in mind, councilors indicated they weren’t interested in making cuts to the Human Services Department and Advance Transit, a free public bus system that serves Lebanon and nearby communities.

The council supported eliminating a librarian position but plans to leave funding in place for the library to make certain repairs, stay open on Saturdays and purchase equipment and materials.

“We’ve heard from many members of the public who do not want us to do violence on the library budget, it seems we’ve already done enough of that,” Wilkie said.

Hanging over the conversation were arguments about how pushing off certain projects may make them more expensive in the future, especially as the budget and tax rate are expected to be high for several years.

City Manager Shaun Mulholland expects the city’s portion of the tax rate to increase by more than 10% annually through 2028. This is mostly because of debt repayment for capital projects, including construction of the new downtown fire station, and decreased use of the city’s unassigned fund balance to shield taxpayers from increases.

For a significant portion of the conversation, councilors debated funding allocations for paving, sidewalk maintenance and guardrail maintenance.

Simon identified paving costs as a large budget item that could be reduced, arguing that the city can stand a one-year moratorium on paving the roads.

Liot Hill, however, opposed the cuts, arguing: “We’re already behind (on road maintenance) and it just kicks the can down the road and makes it more expensive.”

The council ultimately decided to support cutting $50,000 from sidewalk maintenance allocation and to preserve at least $50,000 for paving, while leaving $100,000 up for consideration and leaving guardrail maintenance as a possible cut.

The final public hearing on the proposed 2025 Lebanon city budget is scheduled for Wednesday at the Lebanon High gym at 6 p.m. Residents will have the opportunity to provide public comment before the City Council makes final decisions on budget cuts and votes to adopt a final budget.

Clare Shanahan can be reached at cshanahan@vnews.com or 603-727-3216.