BAILEYVILLE – The proposed 2003-04 municipal and school budget reflects a drop in spending that the town’s largest employer demanded last year.

In April 2002, Washington County’s biggest employer, Domtar Industries Inc.’s pulp and paper mill, asked the town and the school department to trim $1.5 million in spending in the next three years.

The two departments then cut more than $590,000 from this year’s proposed budget. “We’ve exceeded Domtar’s request,” Town Manager Jack Clukey said.

The town cut $284,752, while the school committee was able to eliminate $306,363.

The amount to be appropriated is $8 million, or $608,847 less than last year, a decrease of 7 percent.

The matters will be dealt with when the annual town meeting gets under way today.

The polls are open from 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. The meeting will be held shortly after the polls close at Woodland Elementary School.

The municipal appropriation is proposed at about $2.8 million, and the amount to be appropriated for the school is $4.5 million. The proposed county tax is $655,757 an increase of $10,640 more than last year.

The proposed local share is $5.5 million or $591,363 less than last year, a decrease of 9.64 percent.

Clukey said he was reluctant to say what the proposed mill rate would be until the town assessing was completed. “We could have a mill rate decrease, but we are not projecting that,” Clukey said.

He explained how the process worked. “Less than a 10 percent drop in valuation keeps us at a constant mill rate even though we reduced spending; they work hand in hand,” he said. “We won’t know until this summer.”

He said that what set Baileyville apart from its neighbors was that it had such a high concentration in value in a small number of taxpayers.

In addition to the pulp and paper mill, the town has an oriented strand board plant that is expected to start up this year, as well as the former chip ‘n saw mill. “If you just took our machinery and equipment, that would be almost 80 percent of our tax base,” he said

The races for the Town Council and school committee are uncontested this year.

Incumbent Doug Jones and former state Rep. John Morrison are running for the two three-year vacancies on the council. Incumbent Owen Melville decided not to seek another term.

Joe Triani, who was appointed to succeed Tony Tammaro, who died last year, is running for the two-year term

Incumbents Scott Beal and Lawrence “Gus” Gillis are running for the two vacancies on the school committee.