MECHANIC FALLS – Voters at Saturday’s town meeting will be asked to approve school and municipal budgets totaling about $6.5 million.

If the budget requests pass as proposed, property taxes could very well decrease slightly, Town Manager John Hawley said.

“To play on the safe side, it looks like, at the worst, we’d have the same mill rate,” Hawley said.

The tax rate is $18.90 per $1,000 of assessed property value.

The town council is asking voters to approve a budget increase of about $44,000.

This, noted Hawley, is about $32,000 less than the limit on growth set by the Legislature’s tax cap law.

And, Hawley pointed out, the $44,000 increase includes paying the town’s county tax bill which, at $141,439, is nearly $13,000 more than last year.

The municipal budget includes a request to set aside $205,000 for the capital improvement program. The two largest items in the program are $84,000 for public works equipment and $35,000 to replace the roof for the Fire Department and Public Works building.

The budget committee is recommending approval of all municipal budget items as presented, as well as the Union 29 budget as presented by the School Committee.

“There are no new programs in the budget. We’re just seeking support for the programs that we have,” Elm Street School Principal Mary Martin said.

Martin added that the only significant capital improvement project in this year’s budget is a request for $30,000 for the first year of a two-year project to improve the efficiency of the school’s lighting system.

Martin noted that the switch to more efficient light bulbs should pay for itself rapidly in reduced energy bills.

The town meeting will begin at 9 a.m. in the municipal gymnasium in the lower floor of the town office building on Lewiston Street.