The town manager presented a $22,410,681 budget to the Town Council on Oct. 14, meeting the Town Council’s guidance of no more than a 2 percent increase over the town’s portion of the 2009 municipal tax rate.

The town tax rate for 2010 in Town Manager Russell Marcoux’s proposed budget is $4.13 per $1,000 in assessed property value. That figure includes 6 cents passed on by the state, Marcoux said, for the New Hampshire Retirement System and the end of revenue sharing, for a total of $220,668.

“From a municipal perspective, considering all the other economic issues that we are facing, it is an outrage that the state of New Hampshire budget, as bleak as it may be, was balanced by passing these costs onto local municipalities, school districts and county government,” Marcoux wrote.

The proposed “net tax rate controlled by the town,” which excludes those costs, is $4.07 per $1,000, a 2 percent increase over last year’s municipal tax rate of $3.99.

For a house valued at $400,000, Marcoux said, the tax increase attributable to the town would be $32. The additional costs from the state tack on another $24, bringing the cost to $56 a year.

The proposed budget includes a $430,000 contribution to the Fund Balance Reserve Fund, under a long-term financial plan approved by the council in 2004 “to ensure the town’s future stability and to protect the town against current and future risks,” Marcoux wrote.

To keep the tax increase low, Marcoux proposes eliminating transit bus service, at $43,200; funding to five outside service agencies at $15,460; funding for parade and celebrations at $2,500, opting to fund them through donations; and Chamber of Commerce dues.

The budget also requires pay negotiations with union and non-union employees.

“I determined we could deliver our budget within the guidelines if we treated all our employees, both union and non-union, identically,” Marcoux wrote.

He asked all departments to accept a 2.5 percent “across the board increase” in the next year. The labor union contracts call for raises from zero to 6 percent, with 4.5 percent being the average, Marcoux said Wednesday.

The union for the Department of Public Works agreed, but the police and fire unions did not, Marcoux said. Negotiations will occur in non-public meetings.

At the Oct. 14 meeting, Marcoux praised the unions, even those that did not agree with his proposal, for their cooperation with him.

“I respect them. They were very respectful to me. They just didn’t agree with me,” he said.

In his budget presentation, he wrote, “We were hoping to avoid any protracted contract discussions, but with their decisions that may now be unavoidable.”