To keep a promise made to voters last March, Salem selectmen will dip deeper into the town’s unreserved balance rather than raise taxes in December. But higher town taxes will be unavoidable in 2010.

The decision came Oct. 19 after Town Manager Jonathan Sistare presented options to the board: use reserves to maintain a level-funded budget or increase the tax rate between 3 and 11 cents per $1,000 assessed property value in December to offset shortfalls in 2009 and to anticipate what will be needed in 2010.

In a unanimous vote, the board gave Sistare the go-ahead to pull a total of $450,000 from reserve funds. That will keep the town portion of tax bills the same in December, but the bill will be up an estimated 17 cents per $1,000 assessed property value as the school and county portions of the bill each rose.

Last March, selectmen promised voters their budget would hold the line on taxes in 2009. It hasn’t been an easy promise to keep.

Feeling a cash crunch of its own, the state shorted Salem, leaving a $371,000 hole in anticipated revenue.

Sistare covered that shortfall with a hiring freeze and $300,000 from the town’s rainy day fund. But the rain kept coming, as money from motor vehicle permits and other revenue sources sank dramatically. That meant the town had to find another $150,000 to cover 2009 expenses or raise taxes, he said.

It’s not unusual for the town to draw on its rainy day fund to adjust the municipal portion of December’s tax bill, said Selectman Michael Lyons. But in a normal year, the difference is tens of thousands not hundreds of thousands, he said.

“Right at the time we were proposing our budget there was all this talk in Concord about massive cuts. We went into Town Meeting not knowing what our state aid was going to be,” Lyons said. “We had projected a number of $200,000 (in cuts), but what the state ended up taking away from us went well above that number.”

Sistare said rising health insurance costs alone mean the town will need another $450,000 in 2010. The operating budget proposed by selectmen for next year, already includes a 6.5 cent increase to the tax rate that doesn’t take into account the higher health premiums.

Given that and that more cuts in state aid are expected, Lyons and Selectman Everett McBride argued for raising the municipal tax rate in December above the $4.79 it’s been at since 2008.

That sparked heated debate among board members. Selectman Patrick Hargreaves said changing the tax rate at the final hour would be unfair to residents budgeting for the bill since March and put undue strain on taxpayers already struggling financially.

“If you’re going to tell me my taxes are going to go up 10 percent next year I know. If you tell me, ‘Pat, next year your taxes are going up (X) then I know I have to budget my family for (X),” he said. “You’re giving me the playing field. You’re telling me what I need to survive in this town for one more year. As long as you tell me the number I’m OK.”

Chairman Arthur Barnes said he felt honor-bound to maintain a level-funded tax rate.