BRUNSWICK

After months of wrangling, negotiations, and seemingly endless workshops, meetings and late nights, the Brunswick Town Council on Thursday approved a combined municipal, county and school budget for the 2015-16 fiscal year that will see a tax rate increase of 3.5 percent.

The last step in the process will be for voters to decide whether to pass the school budget in a June 9 referendum.

The budget includes $59.7 million in spending, of which $38.8 million will be paid for by local property taxes.

School expenditures total $36.5 million, of which $23.3 million will be paid for by local taxes. Municipal expenditures total $21.7 million, of which $14 million will be paid for by local taxes.

The town must also pay $1.36 million to the county, all of which is paid for through local taxes.

The tax rate will increase from $27.40 per $1,000 of assessed value to $28.36.

The budget process was perhaps the most tense during discussions between the council and the school department and school board in recent weeks.

The end result: The school district wound up reducing by about $400,000 its spending request before submitting its formal spending plan to the town council. School spending was still about 2 percent more than the current 2014-15 fiscal year, both in terms of its overall spending request, and in terms of the amount to be covered by local property taxes.

“I’d like us to make a commitment going forward to work closely with the school department in an ongoing process to share information and have a better handle of what the expenses will be,” said Councilor Jane Millett on Thursday.

The council on Thursday also approved $10,000 in funds for the Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program, an issue that has seen a stark divide among councilors.

Millett said that the council should have a policy regarding funding social services agencies, and noted that there were other organizations, such as Tedford Housing and Seeds of Independence, that are equally deserving. To fund MCHPP without such a policy, she said, was “premature.”

Councilor Dan Harris, who also opposed funding MCHPP, recounted growing up “on a small, failed farm in New Jersey” with limited means.

“I know what it’s like to stretch out hamburgers with cornflakes,” he said. “I have some understanding for those who are helped by Mid Coast Hunger Prevention.”

However, Harris said he opposed supporting private charities with public money, as well as having the council taking on new obligations while being unable to meet existing obligations. Schools and other departments are, meanwhile, lacking in funds.

A motion by Millett to remove MCHPP funding from the overall spending proposal in order to vote on the issue separately failed, 3-6.

“I can’t think of a greater moral duty as an elected official than to help … those most in need,” said Councilor Steve Walker.

He added: “For the life of me, I can’t understand why we wouldn’t address that need.”

A motion by Councilor John Perreault to earmark MCHPP funding specifically for feeding Brunswick children also failed, 2-7.

MCHPP Program Director Ethan Minton noted that his organization is currently seeking grants to fund the Back Pack program, which benefits 73 Brunswick elementary school students. A new food pantry at Brunswick High School serves 50 students there.

It is more challenging to fund the food pantry, Minton said.