PARIS — Survey is the name of the game.

At their joint meeting Monday night, the Paris select board and Budget Committee decided to survey residents about what cuts they’d be willing to live with if a citizens’ petition to cap the town’s mil rate at the state average is passed, though they haven’t decided how to do so yet.

Resident and dual business owner Scott Buffington and other supporters circulated the petition, which would set the town’s tax rate to the 2013 state weighted average of $14.49 per $1,000 of assessed value. These are the most recent figures from the state. Selectmen estimated between $1.2 and $1.5 million would have to be cut from the municipal budget to reach that cap. As of Monday night, his petition was just shy of 400 signatures with a requirement of 244, and Buffington presented it to Board of Selectmen Chairman Robert Wessels during open session. Buffington noted he was only aware of three people who chose not to sign.

The question, “Shall the town of Paris be required to receive the approval of 50 percent of its registered voters before any expenditures of the municipality can result in the mil rate exceeding the state average as determined by the Maine Revenue Service Tax Division starting with the July 2016 budget?” will now be placed on the ballot for the November election. Town Manager Amy Bernard said in her initial discussions with the town’s lawyer that if the referendum were to pass, it would have to be approved every year.

“Other towns in the past have tried to bind their annual town meeting. In order to do so, you have to (have the) warrant article on every town meeting. You have to vote on it every year,” she said.

Selectman Sam Elliot noted that prior to the tax rate increasing by 40 cents to $18.30 — which town administrators blamed on the increase from School Administrative District 17 — it remained flat at $17.90 for three years.

“To go back to $14 is fairly draconian in a town budget,” he said.

Selectman Vic Hodgkins agreed. He sighed and blew raspberries before making his comments.

“The insidious nature of what’s before us with this citizens’ petition is so far-out-there wrong that it makes any normal conversation about trying to legitimately cut services — give tax relief — it makes it obsolete,” Hodgkins said.

Budget Committee Chairman Robert Kirchherr confirmed that the three biggest departments in town are highway, police and fire. Bernard noted there’s not any fluff built into the municipal budget and the town can’t control what it pays to the county and school district. 

“A $1.2 to $1.5 million decrease will dramatically change your service,” Bernard said.

When there was a discussion about shutting down 40 street lights a few years ago, people wanted other street lights turned off, not theirs, Kirchherr said.

“Cutting the dollars is easy, we can cut anything we want,” he said. “What services and resources are the people in town willing to give up in order to get there? … I don’t have the answer to that.”

Ideas to survey people were tossed around, including using an online tool such as Survey Monkey and asking voters to weigh in at the polls. Kirchherr suggested hosting another citizens’ forum for others to comment about next year’s budget.

“I don’t believe we’ll be able to hit everybody, but we want to hit as many people as we can,” Wessels said about circulating a survey in town.

During open session, resident Rick Little implored town officials to be honest in their representation of the situation when crafting the survey.

“This survey — my fear is tonight it’s doom and gloom and I’ll call it fear-mongering — it’s not the way it should be written,” he said.

His wife, Sarah Glynn, asked for information before the referendum and for town officials and department heads lay out what services could be cut, what that would look like and how much money would be saved.

“We don’t necessarily have to cut out departments or cut of services but there might be more cost-effective ways (to lower taxes),” she said.

Buffington said he didn’t have a personal agenda against anyone in town and there had been a lot of discussion about cuts, but there’s another question that needs to be asked.

“How do we want to grow this town? We certainly can’t grow it when we’re overpriced. The long-term success of this town comes from being affordable. The state average (mil rate) will grow with the rate of inflation,” he said. “This is not a move on my part because I want to stifle the town by any means. I think it’s a change that needs to happen.”

Discussion on surveying the townspeople will be revisited during the next joint meeting between selectmen and the Budget Committee. A date has yet to be set.

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