BRUNSWICK — Town Manager Gary Brown proposed a budget Monday that would raise local property taxes 6.21 percent to make up for losses in state revenue and the Brunswick School Department’s request for $2.4 million more in local funding.

While the proposed spending plan for the fiscal year that begins July 1 would increase the tax rate by more than 6 percent, the proposed budget represents an increase over last year’s budget of 3.1 percent, or about $1.6 million, coming in at $54,865,804.

Those figures could still change during the next month, leading up to a June 12 referendum on the school budget, but town councilors did not give an indication Monday night if or how they might seek to alter the budget, citing a need for more time to review the document completed earlier that day.

Alongside the budget proposal, Brown also presented an updated capital improvement plan that indicates a desire to borrow as much as $14.5 million in the next year to fund school facilities im- provements, plans for which are still in development, and a projected $5.5 million police station construction project for which the final design will be presented to a town committee later today.

Brown said this morning that discussion of how those proposed bonds might be considered — by a vote of the council or a town-wide referendum — will take place in the coming weeks.

The proposed tax rate increase — “one of the larger in increases in recent years,” Brown wrote in a preface to the budget — results mostly from losses in state and federal revenue to the town’s school department and to the municipal revenue-sharing from the state as a result of an overall decline in population.

According to the latest budget figures, the school department lost a total of $2,165,195 in revenues from state and federal sources as well as more than $212,000 in tuition revenue from a decrease in the number of Durham students attending Brunswick schools.

To supplement the loss in school and municipal revenue, Brown proposed spending $1 million in local surpluses “to mitigate the increase,” which he estimated at $222 annually on a property valued at $150,000.

Overall, the school department’s request would make up 61 percent of all municipal spending, which is in line with the portion of local spending dedicated to education in past years.

For the 2010-11 fiscal year, education expenditures made up 60 percent of all local spending; for this year, the budgeted school spending made up 62 percent of the town’s bottom line.

The budget recommended last week by the School Board totals $33,491,029.

Other than $50,000 to manage the train platform at Brunswick Station for the scheduled arrival of Amtrak’s Downeaster train this fall, Brown’s proposed budget includes no new programs or municipal positions.

Thebudgetdoesproposea2percent raise for non-union employees, who make up about 30 of the town’s 150 total employees.

Health care costs for those employees also are expected to go up, Brown said, and the proposed budget anticipates a 15 percent increase in those costs.

Brown’s proposed municipal budget includes no cuts to services or town programs but does include the elimination of one economic development position.

The council will next meet Thursday at 6 p.m. in the town council chambers at Brunswick Station, 16 Station Ave., to discuss the school budget portion of the overall 2012-13 budget proposal.

On Monday, May 7, the Town Council will meet again in the town council chambers at 7 p.m. to discuss the municipal side of the local budget.

By a unanimous vote Monday, councilors scheduled a May 17 public hearing on the budget. A town referendum vote on the school budget is scheduled for June 12.

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View the full draft budget here:

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