MOUNT DESERT – Residents on Tuesday approved both a $12 million municipal budget and $4.5 million school budget during the annual town meeting and a special town meeting.

The municipal budget was the main topic of discussion at the regular town meeting. Voting on the budget resulted in a reduction of about $33,000 from the amount recommended in the warrant, according to Town Manager Michael McDonald.

“There were some math errors I made in calculating the benefits cost,” McDonald said Wednesday. “And a new position that was approved probably will not start until May. We included a 12-month salary in the budget.”

Voters approved the creation of a new clerical position at the town office.

Those reductions more than offset a $10,000 increase to the plowing budget.

Voters also accepted the selectmen’s recommendations to fund capital improvements through reserve accounts for the Fire Department and the harbor budgets. The warrant committee, believing those improvements should be bonded, had recommended lower budget figures, McDonald said.

The total $12 million municipal budget will require that residents raise approximately $10 million, an increase of about $500,000.

At a special town meeting before the regular meeting, voters also approved the $4.5 million school budget. The discussion of school articles was moved to the special town meeting because the wording of some articles had to be changed to meet the requirement of the school-funding act.

At that special session, voters also accepted the selectmen’s recommendation to reject a proposal to purchase a conservation easement owned by the local water district. They also voted against borrowing the $1.5 million the town would have needed if the proposal had passed.

According to McDonald, the town had first refusal on the easement but the selectmen recommended against the plan because the Maine Coast Heritage Trust was prepared to acquire that easement.

The property on Schoolhouse Ledge includes a series of publicly accessible trails linking the village of Northeast Harbor with a section of Acadia National Park.

Voters did approve a lease with the water district on a 3 acre parcel in the same area and clarifications of an existing conservation easement from the National Park Service.

In the only contested race this year, voters re-elected Ernest Coombs and elected Kathleen Branch to the board of selectmen. Coombs received 266 votes; Branch, 245; and James Bright, 109.