LETTER | Biddeford needs to face financial reality

Editor:

I appreciate Councilor Woods taking the time to listen to residents throughout the budget process and acknowledging that household budgets are tight.

(Councilor Explains Her Budget Perspective; Biddeford Gazette, May 10, 2026)

I also appreciate her willingness to recognize that many taxpayers consistently identified police, fire, public works, and schools as the central responsibilities of municipal government.

However, where many residents differ from her position is on the role of municipal government itself.

The fundamental issue is not whether social service organizations do good work. Many absolutely do. The issue is whether local property taxpayers should continue carrying the growing financial burden of funding programs that fall outside the core responsibilities of city government.

For many families in Biddeford, the financial reality is no longer theoretical. Property taxes continue to rise while wages, retirement income, and household purchasing power struggle to keep pace.

Residents are being forced to make hard choices in their own homes — delaying repairs, cutting back on necessities, working additional jobs, or living on fixed incomes with no flexibility. In that environment, taxpayers are asking the city to prioritize essential municipal functions first, not because they lack compassion, but because they understand limits.

Government cannot be everything to everyone

Councilor Woods argues that many outside agencies provide a “public benefit” and may even create “cost savings.” The problem is that these claims are often broad, difficult to measure, and increasingly used to justify permanent municipal spending expansion. Nearly every organization can argue that it provides a public benefit. That does not automatically make it the responsibility of local taxpayers to fund it through property taxes.

At some point, the city must define where municipal responsibility ends.

Police, fire, EMS, road maintenance, infrastructure, sanitation, snow removal, and maintaining safe public spaces are universal services every taxpayer relies on equally. These are core governmental obligations. They are measurable, essential, and directly tied to the functioning and safety of the city.

By contrast, many external programs are policy choices, not municipal necessities.

“Taxpayers are not asking
the city to eliminate compassion.
They are asking the city
to recognize financial reality”
— Tammy Belanger

There is also a growing concern that the city is using property taxes to subsidize services that should primarily be funded through state programs, federal grants, private fundraising, nonprofits, charitable giving, churches, or regional partnerships.

Residents should absolutely have the right to support causes and organizations they believe in voluntarily. But mandatory taxation for an expanding list of outside initiatives removes that choice from taxpayers who may already be struggling financially themselves.

Another concern many residents share is that “deferred maintenance” is frequently cited as justification for higher spending, while simultaneously funding continues to flow toward non-core services. If Biddeford truly faces over $100 million in capital needs, then that reality strengthens the argument for narrowing focus — not broadening it.

The city cannot credibly argue that roads, infrastructure, facilities, and long-term obligations are severely underfunded while also maintaining that taxpayer dollars should continue expanding into areas outside traditional municipal government.

The tradeoff residents are asking for is actually very simple:

Focus first on the essential services that only government can provide.

Taxpayers are not asking the city to eliminate compassion. They are asking the city to recognize financial reality, prioritize core responsibilities, and stop treating every worthy cause as a municipal funding obligation.

Most residents understand there will always be needs greater than available resources. The question is not whether needs exist. The question is whether local government has the discipline to distinguish between what is essential and what is optional.

Right now, many taxpayers do not believe that line is being drawn clearly enough.

Tammy Belanger, Biddeford

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