MEXICO – The town Budget Committee wants selectmen to try to reopen the contracts with the police and public works departments’ unions to try to reduce agreed-upon salary increases.

The effort came last week as the committee and selectmen began deliberations on developing the 2009 municipal budget.

Town Manager John Madigan presented a municipal budget proposal of $2,555,621, down about $300 from 2008. The budget would retain all current services.

While the town’s proposed budget is essentially the same as it was last year, uncertainty lies with the final figure needed for school funding and the impact that figure could have on the town’s 23.5 per $1,000 tax rate.

Madigan is also concerned about the impact of a reduction in state revenue sharing funds, as well as a potential significant decrease in excise taxes, if voters statewide approve a referendum. He, and other town officials from around the state, testified about such effects on small towns in Augusta recently.

The Budget Committee wants to reopen the current contracts with the police and public works departments to try to reduce built-in wage hikes of about 3 percent.

The committee also voted Thursday to recommend that scheduled 3 percent salary hikes for the town’s 13 nonunion employees be eliminated, Madigan said.

He said both matters will be taken up at the selectmen’s next regularly scheduled meeting March 11.

The Budget Committee also recommended that a fuel reserve fund be established with the funds remaining in this year’s fuel accounts. That matter, too, will also be taken up at Wednesday’s board meeting.

Joint meetings of the Budget Committee and selectmen will continue March 12, when the recreation department and library will be discussed, March 19, and in early April when social service agencies will present their requests.

Madigan said a final proposed budget must be ready by April 24. When residents vote on the finalized municipal budget June 9, they will have a choice between selectmen’s recommendations and recommendations by the Budget Committee.