As Windham Town Manager Tony Plante presented plans for town spending next year, he also endorsed making municipal meetings Web-ready now.

“It will put meetings online in real time and archive format,” said Plante about spending more than $14,000 for the equipment to put Town Council, Zoning Board and Planning Board meetings on the Internet. Plante would like to see the equipment purchased from this years budget.

The vote to approve the purchase of the Internet equipment had been tabled in February as the council wanted to evaluate the 2008/09 budget. Plante said he expects approval of the purchase this year.

With the equipment, Windham residents to view meetings whenever they want, instead of tuning in on television or checking out VHS copies at the library.

“I think it’s interesting, and I’m looking forward to seeing how that factors in as a whole,” said Town Councilor Blaine Davis, who has been pushing for months to make all meetings available online. He said he just got a copy of the budget this week and hasn’t made his mind up about it yet.

Plante said a closed captioning service will transcribe the meetings within a few days for the online archive, and the transcripts of the meetings will be used for the minutes instead of having the town clerk type everything.

“They’ll still have to do some editing, but they won’t have to do as much,” he said. He estimated that the town will spend $18,750 on closed captioning for the year.

The entire 2008/09 budget is valued at $45.3 million, with $14.5 million proposed for municipal spending, $30.5 million for the school district and $366,000 for the adult education program.

Plante said federal and state agencies have the option of shifting costs down a level of government, but towns are on the bottom rung and don’t have that option.

His proposed reductions in the budget include eliminating a vacant clerk position in the police department, cutting out overtime hours with schedule changes for the tax collection assistants, paramedics and animal control officer.

In addition, the town paramedics will not receive a cost of living increase in wages, unlike most town employees. Plante said that will save the town about $7,000.

Plante also proposed limiting hours of part-time workers at the Windham Public Library, but said the hours the library is open will not change.

The mil rate is proposed at $12.20 per $1,000 of property value. This is an 8 percent increase over last year’s mil rate of $11.30. Under the new rate, the owner of a house valued at $250,000 would pay $3,050 in property taxes.

Plante said of the proposed mil rate increase, nearly 80 percent is to make up for state educational aid lost this year due to rising property values. Plante said 17 percent is for municipal services and the remaining amount, almost 4 percent, will go to the Cumberland County Commissioners.

Plante said the state revenue sharing fund, where the state sets aside 5.1 percent of sales and income tax to give back to the towns, is projected to provide Windham with $1.2 million of its funding next year.

“With the economic situation, we’re concerned it won’t stay that way,” said Plante of national and state financial woes. He said the fund is still doing better than it was expected to a few months ago.

Plante said the revenue sharing fund could dip down to a lower number, and barring intervention from Augusta, the amount the town receives could diminish.

The proposed budget still needs to be approved by the town council and then by Windham residents at the annual town meeting on Saturday, June 14.