NEW GLOUCESTER — The Budget Committee voted 5-1 Thursday to recommend outsourcing assessing services, a proposal that sparked controversy last month.

The proposal stirred voters at town meeting in May to approve no money for eight municipal accounts, including assessing.

“Sending back the same article to voters disrespects the will of voters of the town meeting and wastes a lot of our time,” Josh McHenry said.

The plan calls for a contracted firm to have a worker at the town hall one day a week along with telephone availability to save roughly $41,000 annually. The full-time employee’s position held for seven years by Nancy Pinette would be abolished.

Roger Levasseur, who in May made the motion that led to the vote not to fund the eight accounts, said, “This was a vote of no confidence in the system.”

Penny Hilton urged that a warrant article solely for assessing be drafted.

“There is still an effort to limit what we vote on,” she said. “It’s just unfriendly to the people you are serving. I want the people to decide.”

Committee member Tammy Wayboer said, “I need to be responsible for the town overall. There’s a dire economic picture out there. You are using the undesignated fund balance like a credit card to pay your bills.”

The undesignated fund balance totaled $3,775,172 at the end of April. Field explained that most of the town’s revenues from taxes were received in early April.

Chairman of the Board of Selectmen Steve Libby said the board will act Monday on a draft warrant that includes an article to fund a full-time assessing service with a town employee. Other articles will cover administration, code enforcement, legal, undesignated funds, selectmen, elections, Social Security, retirement and insurance.

A special town meeting has not been scheduled.