Voters will soon decide how much they want to spend on police, fire, Public Works and other services at the Budgetary Town Meeting.

The annual meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m., Wednesday, March 4, at Bedford High School. The meeting will also be broadcast live on BCTV on Channel 22. However, only those registered voters in attendance at the meeting will be able to cast votes.

The Town Council is proposing a 2009 budget of $24,596,051, a 2.4 percent increase in spending from last year. The corresponding property tax rate is $3.88 per $1,000 assessed property value, which is up 1.9 percent, or 7 cents, from the 2008 rate. At the new rate, the owner of a home assessed at $400,000 would pay $28 more in taxes.

“I think it’s a responsible budget,” said Town Manager Russ Marcoux. “Is it perfect? No. But it delivers the services I think we need.”

Voters at the Budgetary Town Meeting have more power to change the budget than they can at the deliberative session of the School District Meeting, which was held earlier this month, according to Ryk Bullock, who serves as moderator for both the town and school district.

Bullock said it’s like comparing apples to oranges. At the school deliberative session, “You think about it, then you vote on it on Election Day,” he said. At “the budgetary town meeting, you think about it, talk about it, and it’s approved or disapproved that same night.”

Bullock, who, as moderator, is responsible for running the meeting, said he will read through the individual budgets for each department, giving voters an opportunity to ask questions, discuss a spending item or propose an amendment.

“Traditionally, you go through it because that gives people the time to look at individual figures,” Bullock said.

“Obviously, you want to make it as easy as possible for people to participate.”

This is the first Budgetary Town Meeting Bullock will preside as town moderator, having been elected to the position last year after former Moderator Eugene Van Loan decided not to seek re-election.

Yet the role is hardly an unfamiliar one for Bullock, who has been assistant town moderator for 38 years and has been the school district moderator for 18.

Bullock said he needs to strike a balance between town officials and people who follow local government closely and those who might be participating — or tuning in from home — for the first time.

“I’ve got to sort of ride a very interesting tightrope,” Bullock said.

Voters at the meeting can change individual line items, down to vehicle purchases or specific programs, or pass bottom- line changes in the total amount.

“They can do everything short of bonds and electing officers,” Bullock said.

Of the 7 cent increase on the tax rate, 3 cents is the result of extending new police positions from a half-year in 2008 to a full-year in 2009. Those are: a records clerk, a detective and a lieutenant. The other 4 cents is a combination of declining revenues and other increases in expenditures, said Marcoux.

The budget backed by the council is about $500,000, or 2.4 percent, more than what was appropriated for 2008, according to a town report. Marcoux said the town is facing higher personnel costs. Salaries across town departments are up an average 4.3 percent this year.

The town also is shouldering more of the cost for the state retirement system, $89,000 for this year, said Marcoux.

Marcoux added that the 7- cent increase on the tax rate was “as close to zero as you’re going to get” with the town budget.

In addition to the budget, the meeting will also consider a citizen’s petition, proposed by resident Gus Garceau, asking the town to spend up to $150,000 to place barriers on Bell Hill Road and Nashua Road so that drivers cannot enter Route 101 from those roads.

Spending measures that involve borrowing money will be decided at the ballot, not at the Budgetary Town Meeting, Bullock said. This year, there will be two warrant articles on the ballot – a $12 million bond for road reconstruction and $1 million for the upgrade of the Nashua Road and Route 101 intersection.

Being the meeting is March 4, Bullock does not anticipate any major controversies.

“Given that the Budgetary Town Meeting is one week away, I have had no contact with any voter who is laying any consternation with what they’re seeing in the budget,” he said.