JAY – Selectmen plan to review a proposed $3.59 million municipal budget after a brief selectmen’s meeting Monday.

Before the budget review, selectmen will hold a public hearing to discuss a proposed $15-per-unit increase in sewer user fees, which are currently $175 per unit annually.

The Budget Committee will review the draft budget proposed for fiscal year 2005-06, which reflects a decrease of $43,028.87 over the existing budget, and hear from department heads at the same time as selectmen.

Town Manager Ruth Marden said she expects there to be some changes, especially in the donations portion of the budget, which shows an increase for requests of about $10,000 over last year.

The selectmen’s meeting is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. Monday at the Middle School cafeteria.

Public hearings are scheduled on a special entertainment permit for Steppin’ Out in North Jay, and to set sewer rates.

Sewer Department Superintendent Mark Holt is requesting that selectmen set the 2005-06 sewer rate at $190 per unit with the intention of reducing the portion of the budget raised through general taxation.

Sewer users pay an annual fee for sewer use and the rest of the cost is paid through townwide taxation.

If the entire cost of the operation of the Sewer Department were to be raised by sewer fees alone, Holt wrote in his budget packet, the sewer rate would be $601 for each unit annually.

In a memo to selectmen and Budget Committee members in the budget packet, Marden wrote that “Department Heads worked hard to come in under the guidelines that I set out for them.

They were:

• Salary increases of 2 percent.

• A 2.2 percent increase in health insurance.

• A significant increase in fuel costs.

• Level funding for any other items unless increases could be justified.

“I think every one has been a team player on this as we understand that we got a message from the votes last year,” Marden wrote.

Accounts showing marked increases in the proposed budget from the existing one are town government, $447,245 compared to $438,478; Police Department, $878,000 compared to $858,600; Sewer Department, $393,200 compared to $385,200; waste disposal, $1.03 million compared to nearly $1.02 million; donations, $39,642.75 compared to $29,566; and revaluation, $40,000 compared to nothing in the current fiscal year.

Showing marked decreases in the budget are ambulance services, $53,600 compared to $66,814; and the Highway Department, $1.33 million compared to $1.36 million.

Anticipated revenues for the new budget year are anticipated at $2.05 million, compared to $1.95 million in the 2004-05 fiscal year.