FARMINGTON – Selectmen voted Tuesday to take up to $250,000 from the town’s undesignated fund balance. That means that there would be a slight increase in the property tax rate once it’s set.

Selectmen balked at using $440,000 from the undesignated fund, which was initially thought to be needed to keep the tax rate at $17.85 per $1,000 of property valuation.

But after some refiguring using additional information, Town Assessor Mark Caldwell said that if the tax rate were to remain level, it would take using between $300,000 to $360,000 from the fund.

But that didn’t sit well either.

Selectman Charles Murray said he favored taking no more than $250,000 from the fund. He said he wasn’t comfortable taking more than that because no one knew what the economic situation would be like in the future. Voters authorized selectmen at the March annual town meeting to use a minimum of $200,000 from the fund to keep the tax rate down.

The town has about $1.85 million in the fund and reducing that amount would bring it down to about $1.6 million. Auditors recommend municipalities keep a surplus of 15 to 18 percent of the total budget, Town Manager Richard Davis said.

Chairman Mary Wright said she liked Murray’s idea.

She said the town worked hard to keep its expenses down to keep a level tax rate. But the county and SAD 9 budgets increase and estimated non tax revenues are slightly down.

Selectmen Steve Bunker said he didn’t want to dip too much into the safety net.

Caldwell said he still had more data to calculate before the rate could be set. But he estimated using the $250,000 would mean an increase in the rate in the range of 2 percent.

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