PARIS — A little more than 50 voters approved the School Administrative District 17 fiscal year 2016 $38.2 million budget Thursday night during the first of a two-part process that will conclude with a referendum question during next week’s annual town election.

Voters from the district’s eight member towns — Paris, Norway, Oxford, Harrison, Waterford, West Paris, Hebron and Otisfield — met in the Forum at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School on Thursday to approve line items on the 17-article warrant that makes up the budget.

The next step is to ratify that vote in a simple yes or no ballot question that will be available at each of the eight town’s polling places on election day, Tuesday, June 9. Voters will only be able to say “yes” or “no” to the total 2015-2016 budget figure.

The SAD 17 Board of Directors unanimously approved the proposed budget at its meeting May 18. The state still has no budget in place, so the SAD 17 budget is based on Gov. Paul LePage’s budget plan, according to Superintendent Rick Colpitts.

Action was fairly quick on the budget following a presentation by Colpitts that detailed the various budget requests, including $15.1 million for regular education, that includes money for four new positions that largely deal with rising special education costs and an overall $4.8 million request for special education costs.

The proposed spending plan is $815,633 higher than this year’s budget. Colpitts said although the budget is only a 2.18 increase over last year’s budget, it will be a 4.75 percent increase for local taxpayers because the state has determined the value of the district has increased by 14 percent while the value of the state has decreased by 5 percent. It will mean an increase of $892,022 in the local share.

The increases in local assessments will range from highs of 7.42 percent for Oxford and 7 percent for Otisfield, to lows of 2.94 percent for Waterford and negative 0.38 percent for Harrison, which pays on a per-pupil rate.

“The state feels you are wealthy enough to pick up more of the cost of education,” Colpitts said.

While the year-to-year school budgets have only increased 6.45 percent between 2010 and 2016, the cost to local taxpayers in that same period have increased 26.11 percent, he said.

“It’s not because our budget has gone off its rocker; it’s because the state said you can pay more,” Colpitts said.

The budget does have some cuts, including about $100,000 in contingency funds, which were put in place to pay for charter school tuition. The state has now taken over that financial burden, Colpitts said.

The budget also reflects a cut of one bus purchase, the potential loss of two bus routes and the savings from a retired middle school teacher who will not be replaced, the loss of a secretary and an administrator at the central office, he said.

Voters also approved $2.7 million for student and staff support; $3.2 million for career and technical education; $2.1 million for school administration and $3.9 million for facilities maintenance.

Voters approved a $3.8 million budget for the Region 11 technical high school. Technical High School Director Shawn Lambert previously said that the request reflects a 2 percent — or $111,000 — increase over last year’s budget.

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