OXFORD — Voters approved a $4.5 million budget at the annual town meeting Saturday but not before some questioned why there appeared to be a lack of transparency in the budget preparation.

While Budget Committee member Kathleen Dillingham and others called for more transparency in the budget process that would allow voters to come to town meeting better informed, other voters said it is up to residents to attend meetings such as the Board of Selectmen when the budget numbers are discussed.

Dillingham, who serves as the state representative for House District 72 — comprising Mechanic Falls, Otisfield and Oxford — said after the meeting that the Budget Committee met once, for fewer than two hours, to approve the town budget. Dillingham said only one department submitted a line-item budget: the Fire Department. Line-item budgets detail where the money is going.

Newly hired Town Manager Derek Goodine assured the crowd of about 70 voters and several nonvoters that his method of budget preparation is different from what has been been done in the past. “You can see that information,“ Goodine said of his budgeting process, which will include enough information to provide people with the detail that he said he believes they are seeking.

The fiscal 2017 budget is 16 percent ($630,000) higher than the current budget. Last year, voters approved $3.87 million for local spending.

Several amendments to reduce budget requests in the Police Department, Rescue Department and the Administration Account by several hundred thousand dollars were defeated by voters Saturday after selectmen and others explained the increases.

Voters approved the $105,017 increase in the Police Department budget from $790,803 to $895,820. The money includes a $69,000 Maine Drug Enforcement Agency grant that has to be appropriated up front and $45,000 in outside details, which are paid for through billing the organization hiring the officer.

The actual Police Department budget is $781,000, which is about $9,000 less than the current budget, according to Police Chief Jonathan Tibbetts. The MDEA grant will pay to backfill a position to cover the officer assigned to MDEA

The Rescue Department’s budget increase from $265,292 to $322,683 was due in part to an increase in the on-call department pay from $5 per hour to $7.50, Fire Chief Wayne Jones said.

The Administrative Account increase of $86,460 — to $670,480 from the proposed $584,020 — is due in part to health insurance premium increases. The town pays 100 percent of employees’ health insurance and 60 percent of employees’ families’ premiums. Salary increases for employees are, on average, about 3 percent, Selectmen Chairman Scott Owens said.

Voters were told that a 41 percent increase in the the Recreation Department budget from $58,499 to the proposed $82,765 is primarily for personnel costs including bringing the salary of the part-time Recreation Department director and swim instructor into this budget.

One of the largest increases in the budget was a $340,000 increase in the Wastewater Treatment Facility budget, from $181,280 to $520,068 for fiscal year 2017. The increase is due to the new $23.7 million wastewater treatment plant that is going online this summer. Voters were told the increase will not affect taxpayers but will come out of the Omnibus Account.

In other action, voters appropriated:

* $381,469 for the Fire Department, an increase from $341,338;

* $248,470 for the Transfer Station, an increase from $240,205;

* $31,312 for Freeland Holmes Library, an increase from $30,600.

Voters also approved $395,000 for capital improvements, including road maintenance, a new firetruck, new highway equipment, work at Welchville and Thompson Lake dams, and a highway vehicle.

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