At $5 million, the budget Gray voters will consider at the annual town meeting Saturday, May 3, is an increase over last year.

It is the increased use of town surplus funds that has divided some town councilors.

The budget, broken into 24 warrant articles, will be voted on beginning at 9 a.m. at the Newbegin Center on Route 100.

The overall budget is a 2.6 percent change from this year’s $4.8 million spending plan, even though operating expenses are up by 11.25 percent.

Money from the town’s savings accounts, including the undesignated fund balance, would be used to fund operating expenses, as well as capital improvements or one-time expenses such as $260,000 to purchase the land for a new public safety station. A total of $640,000 from undesignated accounts will keep the total budget increase to 2.6 percent.

Town Councilor Marchian Crane is not in favor of using undesignated funds for operating expenses. He compared it to using your savings account to pay your electric bill.

“You can only do that so long before depleting your savings,” Crane said Tuesday.

Town Councilor Tracy Scheckel said Wednesday, “I am totally in support of this budget.” She said that the town’s total bank account is in excess of $7 million.

“We have a healthy undesignated fund balance,” Town Manager Deborah Cabana said Wednesday.

The increased cost of fuel was the biggest challenge in putting together the budget, according to Cabana. Costs for heating town buildings and fueling town vehicles are up by more than $50,000 over this year’s budget. Other products are more expensive, as well.

“We’ve seen a major increase in products such as gravel, sand, and salt,” Cabana said.

Proposed expenses include $260,000 for a new rescue unit. Categories receiving the most money are administrative services, municipal finances, public safety services and public works.

Some late changes to the published warrant were made at an emergency Town Council meeting last Saturday. Scheckel said the meeting was called to correct a calculating error in Article 14.

During this meeting, town manager Cabana and town councilors Andy Upham, Deborah Mancini, Margaret Hutchins, and Scheckel also added an article to allow the town to exceed the state’s property tax levy limit.

If certain items on the budget using undesignated funds were voted down, Scheckel said, the town could be in violation of the property tax levy limit of more than $2.2 million established by state law. Instead of having to call a new town meeting to discuss this, the town councilors decided to add the additional article.

“I think the proposed budget is much too high,” Andy Upham, vice chairman of the town council, said Tuesday. “I don’t feel that the people of Gray can afford those things right now,” he said of the increase in operating expenses. Councilors Upham and Crane voted against the warrant at the town council meeting on April 15.

Several town positions are up for election on June 10. Town residents will select two, three-year Town Council seats. Marchian Crane, Peter Gellerson, Mark Grover, and Andrew Upham are running for these two seats.

For the balance of a three-year term, residents will choose from Philip Pulsifer, Tracy Scheckel, and Richard Walls. There are no contested seats for the School Administrative District 15 School Board and the Gray Water District.

Tod Bennett and Anne Rowe will run for the two three-year terms for the school district. Bruce Sawyer will run for the five-year term at the water district.