SABATTUS – Selectmen will put a leaner budget in front of taxpayers at Saturday’s annual town meeting, trimming $300,000.

That savings, however, may already be spoken for.

Town Manager Gregory Gill said Wednesday that the proposed $2.22 million budget includes cuts of some things that were funded last year but didn’t need money this year – a plow truck payment, a local match for road repairs, and paving at the transfer station and Southern Pond Road.

Departments also trimmed requests by more than $150,000. The biggest drop, almost $80,000, comes from the Police Department, which is losing two men to retirement and not replacing them. The seven-man police force will drop to five.

The town has applied for federal stimulus money to pay for two officer positions and may get an answer in July or August, Gill said.

Reserve officers will pick up some hours, in the meantime.

Public Works is also losing one open position, Gill said. That department will drop from eight to seven people.

If residents pass the budget as is, he anticipates dividing that $300,000 in savings between the school budget and making up for a drop in state revenue sharing. The big unknown, Gill said, is whether Maine voters pass a new excise tax plan in November that would drastically cut the money given to towns.

Even with the lower budget, he said, the tax rate, currently $12.58, might have to go up by 50 cents to $1 if that happened.

Selectmen will set that rate in August, based on Saturday’s results and whether they want to plan for an excise decrease.

In other town meeting business, both selectmen and Budget Committee members oppose the proposal for Sabattus to secede from a Sabattus Lake dam agreement with Wales and Greene and retake control of Sleeper Dam. The question made it on the warrant after residents, many upset about erosion, gathered signatures last year.

“There’s huge controversy. It’s like being a town manager – no matter what you do, you upset some people,” Gill said.

“As a whole, I think the selectmen were concerned with the way the water level has been handled,” but feel it’s gotten better since speaking up, he said.

To break the interlocal agreement, Gill said the town would have to pay Wales and Greene $3,000 each. Then, “it falls under the control of the DEP if they don’t accept what we’re doing.”

Also on the warrant is a proposal for a new tier of fines for dog waste on public property. Fines would be $100 for the first offense, $250 for the second, $500 for the third.

“A lot of people are walking their dogs and not picking up the results of walking their dogs,” Gill said.

On the 52-article warrant, selectmen and the Budget Committee stood together, recommending “ought to pass” on almost every proposal with the exception of whether the Board of Appeals ought to get a stipend out of permit revenues. Selectmen support it; the committee does not.

Both bodies oppose raising $25,000 for a capital building and grounds escrow account for Public Works.

Town meeting is scheduled for 9 a.m. in the Sabattus Central School gym.

Included in the town warrant’s year-in-review:

• Police responded to 6,890 calls in 2008, including 175 to assist motorists, two complaints of kidnapping and 914 reports of suspicious activity.

• Code enforcement issued permits for 21 new homes and 25 sheds, and wrote up 10 violations for junk or auto graveyards.

• Residents recycled 70 tons of cardboard and 77 tons of newspaper/magazines at the transfer station. Manager Jerry Sabins estimates that recycling saved $19,000 in tipping fees and generated $20,000 when the recyclables were sold off.

• The Sabattus Sanitary District treated 38.6 million gallons of wastewater.

• The town recorded 51 births, 33 deaths and 35 marriages.