Town Manager Tony Plante revealed his budget proposal at Tuesday’s town council workshop with an increase of about 4 percent over last year’s budget.

Totaling $43.8 million, the new budget’s recommended spending for the school department is $29.5 millon with an additional $377,000 for adult education. The municipal budget will include the remaining $14 million.

Plante’s proposed budget eliminated the bulky waste drop-off program, where Windham residents had three different weekends each year they could dispose of large unwanted items, like old furniture, appliances and tires, free of charge.

“Something had to give somewhere,” said Plante. He said the program cost about $90,000 annually and only residents who had access to a truck have been able to take advantage of it.

He also proposed cutting the skate park’s repair budget from $10,000 down to $5,000.

Plante said the town collected about $110,000 less last year than anticipated after it began selling stronger curbside pickup trash bags to residents. Plante said the old bags had been weaker than expected and the new ones hold heavier loads of garbage than intended. He said the town is charged by weight and not volume for trash disposal.

Plante has previously met with the heads of various town departments to understand how much each department expects it will need during the coming fiscal year.

The municipal budget breaks down into eight different categories, with $3 million in administrative services, $3.2 million in public works, $2.4 million in police, $1.4 million in fire and rescue services, $270,000 in social services, $720,000 in both parks and recreation and property and inspection services and $140,000 going to the town clerk’s office. The budgets for these departments changed little from last year and Plante said the changes that did happen were because of wages and changes in the roster.

The plan proposes increasing the property tax rate between 2.2 percent and 2.7 percent. Last year’s rate was $11.30 per thousand of valuation. Last year’s property tax rate on a $200,000 property, for example, was $2,260. According to Plante’s budget, the new rate would increase about $50 to $60.

The South Windham sewer project takes up $108,852, the same amount as last year.

“There’s no additional impact in 2008 that wasn’t there in 2007,” said Plante. Before the new sewer system, the town was shelling out around $50,000 to the Portland Water District for the old system.

The fiscal year begins on July 1 and town councilors said they wish to meet with all the department heads before they decide to approve or change the budget.