By Timothy Churchill,Staff Writer

PARIS – Paris’s 2005-06 town budget will be the subject of a public hearing tonight at 6:30 p.m. in the town hall.

In a joint meeting on May 19, the Board of Selectmen and the Budget Committee approved the budget of $5,182,103, a 1.5 percent increase over last year’s budget of $5,103,517.

According to selectmen Chairman William Merrill, the increase is due primarily to the rising costs of fuel, health insurance and workers’ compensation.

For instance, the budgetary line item for governmental costs jumped nearly $80,000 to $136,000, with at least half of that going to increased health insurance and workers’ compensation costs, according to Selectman Bruce W. Hanson.

In addition, Merrill said, the $30,000 increase to $167,665 in the Fire Department’s budget is partly due to the higher cost of running the new station built in the fall of 2003. Based on last year’s building maintenance expenditures, he said, the town realized that the Fire Department’s budget needed to be raised for the 2005-06 fiscal year.

Merrill said a major reason the budget’s line item for administrative services was bumped up just over $20,000 to $388,569 was that the town hired a new full-time deputy clerk, Elizabeth Knox.

The line item for “other governmental” expenses, which comprises the school budget and county assessments, was decreased $110,000 to $2,318,000.

Merrill said he felt confident the budget would meet with the approval of residents, who will vote on it at the annual town meeting on June 18.

“I think (Town Manager Sharon Jackson) has done a heck of a good job with the numbers and the Budget Committee’s done an excellent job,” he said. “I know they’ve put a lot of time and effort and have had a lot of meetings” about the budget.