Auburn officials focused on energy costs for the next year as they fine-tuned the town budget during a Jan. 15 meeting.

According to a draft of the proposed town budget released that day, the town’s proposed operating budget is $4.33 million, a slight increase over the $4.25 million that is listed as the final expenditures for 2008. The draft indicates that the Police Department, with slightly over a million dollars in expenses, is the single largest budget area, with the fire department at $355,580 and local government costs totaling $917,477.

During the Thursday night meeting, Budget Committee Chairman Lew Theos noted that gasoline costs, previously at around $1.50 in the region, have started to creep up lately. Committee member Jan Rego, also the Police Department’s office manager, said that the priceper- gallon had been “sky high” when the initial fuel prices were calculated this summer, but the price has since dropped from those peak levels.

The main fuel-related issue that night was how much to budget for the Auburn Police Department’s gasoline costs for the year, an amount that Theos said originally stood at $40,000 but was later dropped to $35,000. Committee member Deirdre Nash moved to drop the final fuel allocation for that department to $30,000, but the motion failed.

Later, some committee members opted to reconsider utility costs for the Fire Department, but in the end the amounts remained the same. The Fire Department has $7,182 budgeted for electricity and the heating oil allocation is at $10,500.

Overall, Town Administrator Bill Herman said wages come to $1,181,089, comprising about one-quarter of the total budget, with MediCare costs at $170,070. The final budget figure arrived at by the committee was $4,334,540, with a default budget a bit lower, at $4,313,233.

Concerning the town’s income, a total of $2,983,385 is listed for the coming year, with $1.1 million estimated as income from motor vehicle permit fees. State meals and rooms tax was estimated at $210,000 with business license permits totaling $42,000.

Selectman Al Sampson questioned an income item of nearly $200,000 which was listed among miscellaneous revenues under sale of municipal properties. Herman said that income was from the final payment on the Wellington Business Park.

Although the final budget was only a small increase over last year’s expenditures, Sampson noted that a steep drop in estimated income means that an additional $686,000 will need to be raised through taxes. The estimated amount of taxes to be raised is $2,021,015.

Also that night, school officials gave their final budget figure as $10,744,514, an increase of less than 1 percent. The school’s default budget is higher than the proposed budget, at $10,876,762.