Windham Town Manager Tony Plante on Tuesday night proposed a municipal budget for fiscal year 2016 that increases spending 6.6 percent.

The Town Council will now deliberate Plante’s proposals and bring forth a final budget to residents at the annual town meeting in June.

Plante’s $15.5 million proposed budget would increase spending $959,803 compared to this year’s approved budget. The increase is driven primarily by the $52,210 restoration of a code enforcement officer position and a $566,150 increase in capital outlays primarily for road improvements – the realignment of the Anglers and Whites Bridge roads intersection, and engineering improvements along Route 302. Under the proposed budget, town employee wages will increase about 2 percent due to an annual cost of living adjustment.

Plante did not include numbers detailing the potential impact on the property tax if his proposed budget is adopted.

The town may receive more revenues than projected in the manager’s proposed budget, which could in turn limit the size of the ultimate property tax increase. That’s because Plante intentionally underestimated the amount of municipal revenue sharing that is expected to arrive in the town’s coffers this year, due to the increasing unreliability of the program.

“As part of a plan begun in fiscal 2015, municipal revenue sharing is being phased out of the budget,” Plante wrote, in an introduction to the proposed budget. “Whatever the state provides will be available to help reduce the tax levy, as it is designed to do, and/or meet some of the town’s capital needs under the Town Council’s fund balance policy.”

In fiscal year 2014, the town received $732,828 in municipal revenue sharing, and in the fiscal year 2015 budget the town projected $669,014 in revenue sharing. Plante’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2016 projects that the town will receive $325,000 in revenue sharing, even though he expects the town will receive around $700,000 in revenue sharing.

“The news from Augusta isn’t good,” Plante said. “Regardless of the outcome this time around it seems municipal revenue sharing will prove too tempting a pool of funds for state budget-makers to pass up in their own efforts to provide services and maintain the state’s vital infrastructure.”

Next year, the town will budget zero dollars in projected revenue sharing, according to Plante.

“The community’s priorities, investments and future should not be dependent on what resources our representatives in Augusta, or Washington, decide to send our way,” he said.

Plante’s proposed budget also contains a preliminary budget estimate, based on how much spending would be required if the town approved all the requests made by department heads in order to sufficiently meet the “mission” of their respective departments, as defined by the department heads. The mission-based preliminary budget estimate is part of the town’s broader move toward long-term strategic planning, an approach advocated by the new council chairman, David Nadeau. Plante said that while there is no plan to attempt to pass the preliminary budget, it is meant to illustrate the gap between current funding levels and the funding required to provide satisfactory municipal services.

The $16.54 million preliminary budget, which would require a 13.7 percent increase in spending above fiscal year 2015 levels if instituted, would add a compliance and safety coordinator to improve workplace safety and labor law compliance, restore town office hours to the 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday schedule, add two public works drivers, fund a 27th police officer for the second half of the year, increase park maintenance hours, add a teen assistant to meet library programming needs, and add four paramedic positions, as well as several other changes.

“The proposals included in the preliminary budget are another reflection of what the council has already seen elsewhere,” Plante said. “In nearly every instance we are finding that the community’s needs and expectations have outgrown the local government whose purpose is to meet them. A facilities master plan in 1998, a property condition assessment in 2013, and another facilities master plan in 2014 have all pointed to existing and growing deficiencies. Complaints about town office and library hours, building permits and inspection turnaround times, and daytime and nighttime fire-rescue response time differences, to name only a few, point to the effect staffing levels have on service.”

Plante’s introduction to his proposed budget includes a chart comparing municipal full-time staffing levels per capita among Windham, Auburn, Augusta, Brunswick, Biddeford, Saco, Sanford, Scarborough, South Portland and York. According to the chart, Windham has the lowest per capita staffing levels of the 10 selected towns, with 5.1 town staff per 1,000 residents. York has the second lowest at 6.6, while South Portland has the highest, with 9.9.

Plante’s proposed budget includes only one item from the preliminary budget – the restoration of a code enforcement officer position. Plante said he selected this item since the number of permits issued annually is around 2010 levels, while staffing in the code enforcement department is at 60 percent of 2010 levels.

“The manager’s proposed budget seeks to balance the challenge presented by the loss of revenue sharing and other financial stresses with the mission-based needs identified by department heads and the need for capital investment in equipment, roads, other infrastructure and facilities,” Plante said.

Nadeau, who as of Tuesday night said he had not examined the specifics of the manager’s proposed budget, said he was satisfied with Plante’s overall approach.

“We’re in the process of setting up a strategic plan, everybody having the same mission, knowing what you’re doing in that mission and what level you’re carrying it out to,” Nadeau said. “Some of the department heads are saying, ‘I can’t meet that mission goal, I’m only at this level.’ What this does for the first time, is all that stuff won’t fall off the table. You can start looking at it, and saying we’ll do this this year. Next year we can do ‘x.’ The year after that we can do something else. You can start putting a strategy together on how to move this forward.”

Windham Town Manager Tony Plante, left, and Council Chairman David Nadeau discuss Plante’s recently submitted municipal budget, which calls for a 6.6 percent increase.Staff photo by Ezra Silk