AUBURN — Councilors continued their budget scrutiny Monday night with a review of funding for the Auburn-Lewiston Municipal Airport, the Citylink bus system and the Lewiston-Auburn 911 emergency dispatch system.

All three face some cuts as the City Council closes in on its final budget for the 2016-17 fiscal year.

A final City Council vote on the budget is scheduled for June 20. By charter, it must be adopted by the end of June.

At the airport, cuts come in the form of capital spending. City Manager Howard Kroll recommended Auburn not fund its share of a $700,000 parking garage. It’s tough to justify borrowing money for that when the city has so many other infrastructure needs, he said.

“When we have roads that we are supposed to put $10 million investment into and an education system we’re supposed to put $4 million into, I did not see justifying the airport,” Kroll said.

For the Lewiston-Auburn Transit Committee, operators of the Citylink bus system, the cuts come to $27,000 aimed at administrative costs. Committee Chairman Phil Nadeau said that reduction would also cost the system federal matching funds, amounting to an overall cut of $106,000.

Marsha Bennett, transit coordinator for the LATC, said the plan is to shorten the New Auburn route from 60 minutes to 30 and it would join the other routes that share buses under the proposal.

For 911, the city would reduce its amount from $1.07 million to $855,298 but would have to first amend its intergovernmental agreement with Lewiston. Lewiston and Auburn city councilors are scheduled to discuss the 911 service at a special meeting Tuesday, May 31.

Councilors are working their way through their proposed fiscal year 2016-17 budget, which would increase property taxes for city services by $160,129. That would be a 0.67 percent increase. Combined with a $1.2 million increase in property taxes for the Auburn School Department and $25,443 more for Androscoggin County, property taxes would still increase $1.39 million, a 3.3 percent increase compared to the current year.

It would set the total municipal tax rate at $22 per $1,000 of value, up from the current $21.25 tax rate, and would result in a $112.50 increase in taxes for a $150,000 home. Councilors would need a five-vote majority to approve a tax increase like that.

Two things have been driving Auburn’s city budget discussions: a smaller-than-expected rainy-day fund and city councilors’ insistence that the ultimate city property tax increase stay below 0.7 percent. Kroll’s budget stays below that limit, but some councilors last week said they were ready to allow a larger tax increase.

staylor@sunjournal.com