MEXICO — Selectmen and members of the budget committee will meet Tuesday to debate the recreation department budget, nearly a month after voters rejected that budget at the polls.

On June 12, residents voted 209-158 against the selectmen’s proposed $144,101 recreation budget, a 54 percent increase over the current year’s budget. That increase would have funded building repairs, increased utility costs, and a change in Recreation Director Wayne Sevigny’s job to full-time status, nearly tripling his salary to approximately $30,000.

The budget committee had recommended $106,811 for the recreation department budget.

A town ordinance allows selectmen to revise defeated budgets and resubmit them to voters. Should selectmen choose to revise the recreation budget at Tuesday’s meeting, they would then schedule a public hearing on the new budget, followed by a town meeting and secret ballot.

If selectmen decide not to revise the recreation department budget on Tuesday, they would have to readopt the current year’s budget, as is. That’s the route selectmen took with the town’s $64,751 unclassified budget, which voters rejected 187-160.

At the June 26 selectmen’s meeting, several members of the public spoke out against the recreation department’s 54 percent budget increase. Others, including several selectmen, defended the increase as money well spent.

At that meeting, Selectman Byron Oullette said the town had regularly paid $30,000 for recreation directors who had not accomplished as much as Sevigny.

“All of a sudden we hire somebody that’s getting things done, has turned this recreation department into something that’s creating, and no one wants to pay that similar amount of money,” Oullette said.

Town Manager John Madigan also noted that during his first six months on the job, Sevigny secured more than $10,000 in grant money, installed two new baseball dugouts, and brought in revenue through new basketball, soccer and Little League programs.

In an interview on Monday, Sevigny said he has plans to make the recreation department a vibrant, growing part of the community.

“There’s a lot of programs and we plan on doing more, but I don’t know,” Sevigny said. “People just don’t like change and people are fighting it.”

Last spring, the recreation budget was reduced to $93,585 from its 2010-11 level of $108,030. Longtime Recreation Director Greg Arsenault resigned soon after, and Sevigny agreed to take the job on a part-time basis. At 20 hours per week, Sevigny takes home roughly $9,000 a year, or about $127 a week.

“I didn’t do it for the money. I told them I’d try it,” Sevigny said. “I said I’d give it a shot and if it works out we can discuss the pay.”

Selectmen and budget committee members will discuss Sevigny’s salary — and other increases in the recreation department budget — at 6 p.m. Tuesday. The meeting will take place at the Calvin Lyons Mexico Town Hall.