About 55 Arrowsic residents approved the town’s proposed roughly $1 million spending plan for the coming year at the annual town meeting on Thursday.

No changes were made to the budget — up $66,556 from last year — during the meeting. Most of the town’s $1,035,341 spending plan is driven by the $535,020 Regional School Unit 1 expense. Municipal costs alone total just under $342,000, according to town warrant documents.

Town administrators don’t yet know how the new budget will affect taxes. The new tax rate will be determined in the fall when administrators perform the tax commitment, which is when a tax assessor calculates the tax rate for residents based on the municipal, county and school budgets, according to Town Administrator Sheila Spear.

The current tax rate is $9.55 per $1,000 of value, meaning a $200,000 home has a $1,910 property tax bill.

The largest budget items include a $115,000 allocation for general town road maintenance, repair and snow removal, as well as $71,387 to cover town employee salaries, according to the town meeting warrant.

Residents also approved $30,300 — over $13,000 more than the current budget — for administrative costs. Selectman DeeDee Jorgensen said the increase stems from “adding and upgrading our computers and software operating platforms.”

In addition to municipal costs, RSU1’s new $38.9 million spending plan, approved by area voters earlier this month, increased by $665,553 from last year. The major drivers of the new budget include a $469,471, or 3.96%, increase in regular instruction across the district and a $178,251, 11.53%, rise in career and technical education.

The proposed $10.7 million Sagadahoc County budget is increasing by $342,818. The county plans to spend $28,000 to replace cameras in police cruisers, $18,000 for Emergency 911 software upgrades and raise an additional $40,000 to replace the emergency dispatch software system, County Administrator Pamela Hile told The Times Record.

Select board Chair Walter Briggs was also re-elected to his position on the board after running unopposed on Thursday. He will serve another three-year term. He was first elected to the board in December 2018 after his predecessor, Selectman Bill Savedoff, announced his resignation and Briggs was named as the only candidate to fill the empty seat.

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