Similar to the Hopkinton School District, the town has been asked by the budget committee to set a budget with a 3.8 percent increase or less.

Though the selectmen’s 7.28 percent proposed budget increase is more than requested, Town Administrator Ed Wojnowski said the tax rate should go down 1 cent from $4.33 per $1,000 assessed property value to $4.32.

The bottom-line increase over last year’s budget is $372,390.

“After the board received requests from each of the department heads and decided on things we want to accomplish, we decided to work as hard as possible to maintain a tax base of $4.33, which it currently is in 2006, and therefore built the budget around maintaining it at that level,” said Wojnowski.

Selectmen recently adopted a fiscal policy that adds more scrutiny toward revenue, programs offered and maintaining a level tax rate.

“The goal of the board, when it set out, was to continue moving the town forward with various activities and programs, but at the same time we wanted to minimize the (tax) impact on community,” said Wojnowski. “Our goal is to maintain the town portion at exactly what it was last year.”

The budget is broken down by town department into 14 separate warrant articles and will total $5,491,108, up from $5,118,718 last year. This year, selectmen asked each department to look at current needs, while maintaining long-term well-being, such as future development of a community center and the need for new police cruisers.

“There is nothing extravagant,” said Wojnowski. “We just wanted a lean budget for residents that also covered our basic needs as a town.”

The town, using tax rate tables to determine areas where it can maximize revenue, is anticipating more than $2 million in additional money, which will be used to reduce amount raised through taxes to $3,360,206, Wojnowski said.

The town is basing its numbers off the current tax rate and a projection of $15 million in anticipated new construction over the fiscal year using building permit applications that have already been submitted and assessed.

Though the numbers are inconclusive because abatement requests are still being considered and veteran exemptions are being granted for the upcoming fiscal year, the projected assessed value for all town property is $777,137,052.

Selectmen are taking $1 million from that amount in anticipation of further abatements. Wojnowski, however, said selectmen are being cautious by assuming $1 million and the reduction in town property value will probably be lower by Town Meeting. Moreover, the town anticipates using $200,000 from surplus funds to reduce the tax rate.

Though the state Department of Revenue Administration recommends 5 percent of surplus be retained by the town in case of emergency, selectmen voted 4-1 to retain all of this year’s $1.4 million balance, even though 5 percent was about $938,000.

“That didn’t leave a lot of money to be used to reduce the taxes, and the board voted to withhold use of any revenue to reduce taxes in 2006, but they anticipate we will have about $200,000 over the 5 percent retainage that we can use to offset and reduce taxes in 2007,” said Wojnowski.

But budget committee member David Lancaster, who also co-founded the Hopkinton-Contoocook Taxpayers Association, said he thinks the town should have used the additional funds in 2006 because of the widespread tax increases around town.

“My concern is they are taking money they wouldn’t give back to the taxpayers last year and are using it this year. I would have preferred that they had given it back to us last year,” said Lancaster. “My concept is that that’s my money and the taxpayers money, and we should have a say in when and how we get it back.”

In fact, the association has submitted a petitioned warrant article asking the town to stick to maintaining its 5 percent of surplus funds and applying the rest against the tax rate each year.

“Yeah, you need some reserve funds in case of emergency, but 5 percent of roughly $20 million total budgets between the town and school is about $1 million, which should be plenty for emergency, so were actually going to have a warrant article because believe that should be our money.”

So what will selectmen say to the budget committee when the two boards meet Jan. 17?

“What we will say to them is, ‘While the budget is up 7.28 percent, the warrant articles are down, which ends up being a .7 percent total increase,’” said Wojnowski.

Lancaster said selectmen need to take another look at their numbers.

“My take is I don’t think the selectmen quite got the concept. The concept was a 3.8 target,” said Lancaster. “It’s not a hard cap, but obviously we wanted the town and school board each to come in at 3.8 (percent) spending and we wanted to maximize revenues.”

This year, selectmen and the planning board, which served as capital improvement committee, decided to stick with capital improvement and expendable trust fund articles only and shy away from additional bond and land purchase requests, such as the $58,000 land purchase article on last year’s warrant.

The result is a 3 percent, or $66,400, decrease in requested warrant article money. Last year, the town requested $496,000; this year it is asking for $429,600. Should all warrant articles be approved, the total operating budget for the upcoming fiscal year will be $5,964,718, a 1 percent decrease from last year.

“If we accomplish this we should be able to move the town forward in the direction we hope, while minimizing tax impact,” said Wojnowski.

The budget committee, school board and selectmen will host a public hearing on all budgets on Wednesday, Jan. 24, at 6:30 p.m., at Hopkinton High School.

Lancaster said he encourages residents to visit www. Hopkintontaxpayers.com, for more information on this year’s budgets.