NORWAY — Town Manager David Holt said Tuesday morning that a final tally of Monday’s annual town meeting appropriations shows that voters approved $207,764 more than the selectmen’s $3.9 million budget recommendation and $166,566 more than the Budget Committee’s recommendation.

Now taxpayers in Norway will have to wait to see how much their taxes will increase, Holt said.

Voters rebuffed major budget recommendations from selectmen and Budget Committee to restore a full-time position in the Police Department, a full-time position in the Highway Department and to create a full-time fire chief position.

The move required adding $45,000 to the employee benefits line item to pay for health insurance and other benefits of the full-time positions. Holt said a decision had not been made yet whether the Highway Department position would be a full time or part time. The restored police officer position is expected to provide funding to retain the drug-enforcement officer.

Additionally, voters agreed to restore $20,000 to provider agencies, add $17,000 to the Norway Memorial Library’s proposed budget and to add back other spending during the feisty, 2½ hours of action on the 46-article warrant.

A decision on whether residents will have to pay additional taxes to compensate for the town meeting action may depend on whether the Legislature overrides Gov. Paul LePage’s threatened veto of the state budget.

Holt said Tuesday that given the state’s valuation last year of $432 million for properties in Norway, a mill is added to the tax rate for every $432,053 appropriated. The valuation is expected to increase this year, he said.

“The additions add about one-half a mill to the tax rate,” Holt said. “If one owns property worth $100,000, then adding one-half mill to the tax rate would mean $50 more. Should the Legislature be able to override the governor’s threatened veto of the state budget, then the funds for municipalities included would about equal the town meeting’s additions for Norway.”

The Board of Selectmen and Budget Committee had disagreed on a few recommendations as they developed the budget for town meeting action this spring. Both boards had taken a conservative approach, preferring to go with a “worst case scenario” under the governor’s proposed cuts to keep the tax rate stable.

The idea was to call a special town meeting and restore cuts if that did not occur, Holt said.

“Wherever we could make cuts, we made them,” Holt told town meeting voters. Calling the governor’s proposed cuts to state revenue-sharing “Draconian,” he said there were no good cuts in the municipal budget.

“I thought they were all bad ideas,” he said of the cuts the local officials were forced to take to keep the tax rate level. “That’s what was necessary if you didn’t want your taxes raised. It was that simple.”

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