PHILLIPS — Selectmen on Tuesday talked about ways to encourage property owners to learn how their taxes are spent.

Resident John Foss asked selectmen how they calculated the recent tax rate increase from $16.20 to $20.80, per thousand dollars of property value.

“There is a big discussion about the … increase in the town of Phillips,” he said. “Less than 1 percent of that was the school budget.”

Selectmen agreed that part of the complex issue is that property owners often don’t attend town meetings, while people who don’t own property can vote.

“Residents come to the town meeting and approve spending money, and selectmen were charged with finding ways to pay for those costs, Selectman Lincoln Haines said. “At our town meeting, voters appropriated money for road projects and other things, and after that, it was our job to come up with the money,” he said.

The tax bills, said Town Manager Elaine Hubbard, include a pie chart that explains the proportion of money spent in each of the budget categories, year by year. In previous years, the town had surplus funds to appropriate for road repairs, so the burden on taxpayers was negligible. Since taxpayers approved spending $195,000 on roads in 2013, and the town did not have that money, it was raised through taxes.

A  mill raises a little less than $80,000, Hubbard said.

The significant decline in revenues from the state compounds the problem, Hubbard said after the meeting. The town will receive nearly 50 percent less this year from the state in revenue sharing, she said.

“Last year, we got $120,000, and this year we’re getting $62,000,” she said.

Last year, the town also received more than $54,000 to repair roads, but that was reduced by $10,000 this year.

Hubbard also said forest land can be taxed at a lower rate under the state Tree Growth tax program. The problem, she said, is that the state has been reimbursing the town less and less each year.

“Tree growth reimbursement is less by $6,600 this year,” Hubbard said.

In other business, selectmen announced that the transfer station can not accept hot ashes because of the legal liability. Other biomass wastes include oil, coal, boiler and incinerator ashes.

The transfer station operator had been accepting ashes from wood stoves, but that should not have been allowed, according to Selectman Ray Gaudette.

Hubbard also asked residents to use the side entrance to the building starting Monday, Oct. 28, , because snowfall from the roof at the main entrance presents a problem.