KINGFIELD — Voters at the annual town meeting Saturday will be asked to approve articles that represent a 7 percent budget increase from 2012-13.

The meeting will start at 9 a.m. June 15 at Kingfield Elementary School.

Voters first will choose either SAD 58 director Judy Dill or challenger Beth Luce for a three-year term.

Voters will also choose among incumbents Heather Moody and Raymond Meldrum, and challenger Brad Orbeton for two selectmen’s seats.

The warrant reflects a difference in selectmen’s requests and Budget Committee’s recommendations. Selectmen are asking for $951,546 from taxpayers, while the Budget Committee recommends $932,046.

The town’s 30-year Tax Increment Financing account, which shelters a portion of taxes from Poland Spring Water Co.’s bottling plant, has provided annual supplemental funding for many municipal expenses.

This year, selectmen are asking for $151,625 from the TIF account, while the Budget Committee recommends using $134,125. Voters approved a 2012-13 budget of $918,808 by raising and appropriating $748,533 from taxes and $170,275 from TIF funds.

“The increase is within the state LD 1 cap, which is what we’re allowed to request as a percentage over last year’s budget,” Administrative Assistant Leanna Targett said. “The good news is that the costs come from improvements that benefit the town.”

The cost of road repair has increased, according to Targett. Public Works Director Bruce White has requested $10,000 more this year for tar.

He recently told selectmen that in 2000, he spent $28.25 per square yard to pave a section of town road. The cost jumped to $73.50 in 2011. Prices since have climbed even higher.

“Equipment repairs are up by $4,000, and we’ve budgeted $1,500 for an extra load of salt for winter roads,” Targett said. “We’ve also added $1,000 for signs.”

Street signs are vandalized and stolen on a regular basis, she said, and are expensive to replace. The Public Works Department pays $90 per sign, and employees allocate many work hours to repair and replace them.

White said he hasn’t solved the problem of sign theft, but he has changed the sign poles to ones that better survive vandalism.

Other inevitable increases, including fuel and oil, telephone service and electricity, are hard to avoid, Targett said. “We also needed to increase what we anticipate in discounts and abatements from $20,000 to $30,000, due to residents taking advantage of the early discount (payment) dates,” she said.

A total of $15,000 from TIF funds will go to the Recreation Department, Kingfield Pops, Art Walk and bicentennial celebration accounts.

“We thought Kingfield Days might not happen this year, but our very own Emily Hatfield has taken the bull by the horns,” Targett said. “She and Diane Christen and Danielle Mathieu will make it happen.”

The events set for July 19-21 are only a month away, and they have no time to raise money, so they are using reserves and could really use more, Targett said.

Additionally, the Maine Department of Transportation’s reconstruction plan proposed for the 2014-15 fiscal year has allowed townspeople to plan for improvements before the work begins on Main Street.

Volunteer committees are requesting that $82,500 from TIF funds go into five reserve accounts: planning, road reconstruction, sidewalks, parking and streetscapes.