Despite two new positions in the police department and changing four positions in the fire department from part time to full time, the average Westbrook resident would have to cough up only an extra $40 in taxes next year, under the mayor’s proposed budget.

The City Council Finance Committee is starting its review Thursday of the next fiscal year’s budget, which was presented to the council by Mayor Bruce Chuluda at a meeting Monday. The $53.7 million budget represents an increase of 4.3 percent over the current budget. However, the tax rate will increase only 1.2 percent, adding 19 cents to the tax rate.

That increase would put the tax rate at $15.92 per $1,000 of valuation, which would translate into $3,393 in taxes for a Westbrook resident who owns a home assessed at $217,200. That would be an increase of $41.16 in property taxes over last year.

Chuluda said the administration has taken a “highly conservative approach” to creating the new budget, in order not to further burden taxpayers already facing the drawbacks of a struggling economy, such as increases in the cost of gasoline, heating fuel and supermarket staples.

The total budget includes the $20.1 million municipal budget and the $31 million school budget. The budget also includes $1 million that will go toward the county budget and $1.6 million toward tax increment financing, which are taxes that will be returned to businesses based on agreements worked out with the city.

Superintendent Stan Sawyer originally proposed a $30.5 million budget to the School Committee, representing a 3.3 percent increase over the current budget. That figure did not match the one presented Monday, both because work has been done on the budget by the School Committee and because earlier it did not include the adult education budget or the $840,000 in debt service the school will have to pay for the middle school project. Of that debt, $650,000 will be paid for by the state.

City Administrator Jerre Bryant said “there aren’t any major changes” in the proposed municipal budget. The largest increases are in the police, technology and the fire and rescue departments and street maintenance.

The $123,000 proposed increase to the police department’s budget is driven by adding a full-time traffic enforcement officer and a part-time parking enforcement officer and the implementation of a new records management system.

Technology expenses increased by $73,000, which is due to a new phone system and the cost of service contracts for maintaining both new and existing equipment.

Hiring of four part-time firefighter/paramedics as full-time employees, as well as the increase in the price of diesel fuel, are the costs behind the $71,000 increase in the fire and rescue budget.

The damage done this winter by the heavy snowfall and increase in the cost of road salt contributed to the $69,000 budget increase for street maintenance. In addition to those expenses, Chuluda proposed to dedicate $18,600 to increase the level of upkeep in the city’s downtown.

To offset the increases in expenditures, the city was able to reduce spending in a few areas. Bryant explained that the $106,000 reduction in debt expenses was due to the fact that the city is retiring more debt than it is issuing.

“When you pay down your credit card, your bill gets lower,” he said.

In addition, building maintenance costs decreased by $50,000 because the city and schools have been collaborating and consequently lowering the cost of service contracts. Health insurance expenses also decreased, resulting in a $21,000 reduction in the cost of employee benefits.

Bryant and Sawyer each presented their budgets to councilors and School Committee members at a joint workshop Monday.

Bryant said revenue realized both by the city and even more by the schools helped keep the increase in tax rate to a minimum.

The proposed budget took into account $8.1 million in revenue the city expects to accrue next year. The bulk of that money will come from excise taxes, revenue sharing, rescue fees and building permits. Bryant said revenue from those areas has gone down in many surrounding communities, but not in Westbrook.

On the school side, the $15.3 million in revenue in the proposed budget – a 10 percent increase – represents a “very strong growth year,” Bryant said. State aid totaled $12.4 million, an increase of $492,000 over the current year, which School Committee Chairman Greg Smith said Westbrook was fortune to receive, considering other communities did not see that increase.

Additional school revenue will come from the $650,000 return from the state on the budgeted debt service payment for the new middle school project, as well as $360,000 that was budgeted for this year, but not spent. Bryant said the unspent money does not mean that services budgeted for weren’t provided but that they cost less than projected.

Also, the school department expects to receive about $500,000 in Medicaid.

The School Committee expects to adopt its budget on May 7.

At the workshop, both councilors and School Committee members praised the work done by Sawyer and the school administration to keep its budget down.

Though councilors had only the weekend to review the proposed municipal budget, Council President Brendan Rielly said the city administration seemed to have done just as thorough a job in preparing the lowest budget possible.

“It’s been a great collaborative effort,” said Councilor John O’Hara about coming up with the total budget by working with the School Committee. According to O’Hara, it wasn’t always that way. He said the two boards “were more adversaries than partners” when he first became a councilor.

“We’re partners now,” he said. “It really shows.”