PHILLIPS – They came to cut the budget, and they did.

More than 200 voters turned out Saturday for the second town meeting to approve a budget, called by selectmen after voters rejected a proposed spending plan on June 28.

Townspeople at that meeting failed to act on any spending, forcing the town to lay off employees as municipal government ground to a halt.

At Saturday’s seven-hour, second-chance meeting, voters cut an estimated $20,000 to $30,000 from the proposed $1.04 million warrant, Town Manager Lynn White said.

But they passed a budget for the 2008-09 fiscal year. Town business will resume on Monday, White said.

“It was a great demonstration of how a town meeting should work,” he said. “It was wonderful. I was so pleased to see so many people here.”

Voters nit-picked nearly every article, making multiple amendments and exhibiting a lack of trust in selectmen.

For example, one person convinced voters to put worn-out town-owned items and property acquired by nonpayment of taxes up for auction rather than letting selectmen handle the items as they saw fit.

Voters also tried to cut a large raise given to White’s assistant office worker, whom White said must do much of the work he has yet to be certified to handle. That attempt, which sought to reduce the proposed General Administration budget of $123,156 to $100,000, was overwhelmingly defeated following a 30-minute discussion.

When it came to the social services section of the warrant, resident Charlie Wilbur worked the crowd into a mild but good-humored frenzy.

“All you’re doing is just giving your money away,” the elderly man said before rattling off groups and requested amounts that should not be approved, in his opinion.

Subsequently, voters rejected requests for:

• $1,500 to help support the Narrow Gauge Riders ATV Club for the 2008-09 year;

• $1,500 from the North Franklin Snowmobile Club;

• $5,000 from the Phillips 2012 Bicentennial Celebration;

• $5,000 from the Phillips American Legion toward operating expenses;

• $175 from the Rangeley Housing Development, which, White said, was an error and should have been $2,000, which elicited gasps of alarm, then satisfaction when a majority shot down that corrective amendment and the article itself.

• $1,500 for operating expenses from the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce.

• $1,988 for operating expenses from Community Concepts.

Additionally, voters gutted operating expense funding for the popular Phillips Area Community Center, formerly known as “The Zone.” They then tried unsuccessfully to fight off an amendment from Selectman Steven Charles that requires the town to match any money raised by the organization up to $2,500.

However, voters agreed to raise and appropriate $90 requested by the Mid Maine Homeless Shelter in Waterville, on the off chance that more than a few might be there come winter if the prices of diesel, gasoline and heating oil didn’t soon drop.