WINTERPORT – Despite the town meeting decision to give the Town Council a significant raise, the overall budget for the coming year will be lower than the year before.

Town Manager Phil Pitula said the bottom line on the budget was $3,848,670 compared to the $3,856,865 that was raised last year. He attributed a $48,000 drop in the town’s school budget assessment from SAD 22 for the reduced figure.

“We held the line on spending,” Pitula said Wednesday. “I think residents will be pleased about that.”

Pitula said the SAD 22 portion of the budget works out to $2,017,057, the municipal portion is $1,499,316 and the Waldo County portion is $332,297.

Pitula said voters at town meeting were in a generous mood when it came time to discuss the annual pay for the five-member Town Council. He said assessor Robert Reynolds convinced voters that council members spend a great deal of their time on town affairs and had not received a raise in many years.

The voters agreed with Reynolds’ assessment and raised their pay from $1,900 per year to $2,900 per year.

“It was not put in the budget, but the town raised an additional $5,000 for the Town Council,” he said.

Pitula said the voters also agreed to create a reserve account for the future construction of a Public Works building and raised $15,000 for the initial payment. Pitula said the town stores its equipment at the transfer station and at a privately owned barn off Coles Corner Road. He said the building would likely be located at the transfer station and would be large enough to both store and repair equipment.

“I was very pleased because we really need a building,” he said.

In another spending decision, voters agreed to take $31,450 from surplus to cover the cost of reimbursing those residents and business owners who paid personal property taxes in 2001 and 2002 and were overlooked for rebates when the Board of Assessors voted to stop assessing personal property and abated all remaining assessments.

Voters approved an amendment to the Winterport Shoreland Zoning regulations that changed the boundaries of the Resource Protection District on property owned by Carline Dunham. Pitula said the Department of Environmental Protection approved the amendments.

Pitula said the town decided to delay making additional changes to the shoreland zoning rules until the state completes revisions to its regulations. The town’s shoreland laws are comparable to state requirements and the Department of Environmental Protection is in the process of updating its regulations to meet recent changes in state law.

“We’ll bring it back when the state has advised us of the changes,” he said.

For municipal spending, voters appropriated $124,492 for benefits and insurance, $42,640 for the fire department, $312,350 for winter roads, $114,135 for road maintenance, $101,000 for paving unpaved roads, $116,000 for road reconstruction, $208,683 for solid waste, $25,600 for recreation, $155,872 for administration, $17,695 for the Winterport Free Library, $10,000 for Union Meeting House repairs, $16,500 for cemeteries and $91,487 for streetlights and fire hydrants. The voters appropriated $150,000 from surplus to help reduce the local tax rate.