Windham residents approved the municipal and school budget in speedy fashion Saturday, tackling the town meeting warrant with little comment and in just over one hour.

The 2008-09 budget, with an almost $30 million municipal budget and more than $14 million school spending plan, represents a 3.5 percent tax rate increase, to $11.70 per thousand valuation.

Town Council Chairman John MacKinnon started the meeting with a review of the budget. There was no tax increase in the 2007-08 budget, he said, so the increase has been just over 1.5 percent over the last two years.

The 2008-09 municipal budget comes in at $14.47 million. Almost $6.79 million of that comes is slate to come from property taxes, an increase of around $75,000 over the previous year. The town meeting approved the use of $650,000 in the fund balance account to offset property taxes. In the 2007-08 budget, just under $600,000 was used from that account.

Slight increases were seen in the Public Works budget, where the increasing costs of snow removal and vehicle and highway maintenance helped drive the budget up by around $217,000 in a $3.35 milllion spending plan.

The Police Services budget also rose, by just over $100,000 in a $2.47 million budget. Increases in both the cost of administration and vehicle maintenance were responsible for the rising budget.

The cost for employee benefits dropped more than $20,000 as town workers will now pay an increased share of their health insurance.

On the school budget side, cuts included the loss of an assistant prinicipal position at Manchester School that was created for the original budget but cut during the budget review process.

Councilors also cut an additional $110,000 at the final budget review by using additional surplus funds. The plan to use the surplus was controversial, and passed by a 4-3 vote.

Councilor Kaile Warren, who voted against the plan to use surplus and wanted rather to simply cut the funds from the budget, called the plan “highly speculative” given the uncertainty surrounding the economy.

Supporters of the plan, like School Board Chairman Jeff Pierce, said the School Department would be forced to cut back spending if the surplus funds are not at a sufficient level by the end of next year, and thus could not overspend.

The small increase in the budget is an accomplishment considering revenues are flat or decreasing while costs continue to rise, MacKinnon said. Residents at the meeting seemed to agree with MacKinnon as they cruised through the 35-article warrant without debate.

If the town is going to have to continue to deliver budgets with little or no tax increases, it is going to have to research ways to share resources, both with the school department and with neighboring towns, MacKinnon said.