AUBURN – City councilors upped the cost of living here Monday night.

By a 5-1 vote – only Councilor Belinda Gerry said nay – councilors approved a $58.8 million budget. Then, by the same vote, councilors agreed that property owners in the city would have to pay $36.5 million of the budget.

The rest of the money is covered by fees, licenses, state aid and federal grants.

The amount to be raised by the property tax calls for a rate of $29.38 for each $1,000 of a property’s assessed value. The increase in the tax rate, 94 cents, means the owner of a house valued at $100,000 will pay $2,938, or an additional $94, this year over last.

Prefacing her vote, Gerry said, “I wish we had spent more time on the budget.”

She added, “I do not feel good about the services we’ll be cutting” to hold the budget down, and also said the council should have “pursued other ways” to both trim spending and increase revenues.

Mayor Norman Guay countered that “whatever decision we made it was apparent it wouldn’t have helped us in this year.”

Larry Comeau, who was watching proceedings in the audience, rose to tell councilors the tax rate increase was “tough in these economic times.” He suggested that councilors should have taken a harder stance in union negotiations, and cited the demands of city workers as a group for boosting municipal spending.

“I don’t know anyone in business who’s handing out pay raises,” Comeau said.

Guay promised more diligence in budget sessions for the next fiscal year.

“Nothing,” he said, “will be sacred.”

Shortly after the budget vote, councilors approved issuing the sale of $1.2 million in municipal bonds earmarked to pay the city’s unfunded liability with the State Retirement System. The liability stems from a decade-old change in the way the state pension fund is financed. The $1.2 million will cover Auburn’s remaining estimated share of its pension liability.

Councilor Kelly Matzen called it the first step in lowering the city’s next budget.

By paying off the money the city owes the state now, it can save $314,000 in interest over the life of the bonds, according to calculations made by city staffers. First year savings alone are estimated at more than $100,000, providing the bonds are sold at prevailing low interest rates.

In other action, councilors advanced a resolution calling for taking a building and property at 190 Main St. by eminent domain. The building, which is near the Riverwalk Park, was called “an eyesore” by a Community Development Department official. It has a multitude of code violations, councilors were told.

The city is negotiating to buy the property for $80,000, which is $10,000 more than its appraised value, but development officials wanted to start the eminent domain process in the event sales negotiations bog down.

Councilors also held two closed door sessions, one before the special meeting and one following it. Neither appeared on the meeting’s agenda.

The first, coming in the midst of a so-called work session before councilors opened their official meeting, was regarding land acquisition. It involved either Dunkin Donuts in New Auburn, Oxford Aviation or an industrial park property, or possibly all three.

The three were scheduled for discussion at the work session, according to one council source. Councilors never opened the work session following the single motion to discuss land, so it was impossible to tell which of the three was actually discussed.

Once the formal meeting opened, City Manager Pat Finnigan told councilors she met Saturday with city airport trustees regarding future operations at the airport.

The second closed-door session, which followed council adjournment, was to deal with “personnel issues” and “economic development,” according to the single motion calling for the secret gathering.

State law requires separate votes on each matter to be discussed in executive sessions.

The Sun Journal protested both of the closed-door meetings, challenging the purpose and timing of them in relationship with compliance to Maine’s Right to Know laws.