Waterford — Waterford now has a budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

Members of the 22-member Representative Town Meeting took a final vote on the town's operating, capital and education budgets Thursday, after making cuts to all three over four days of budget deliberations.

Based on the latest version of the proposed state budget being considered in Hartford, the budget the RTM approved Thursday night will result in an approximately 0.95 mill, or 3.86 percent, increase in the town's mill rate, according to Finance Director Maryanna Stevens.

The final operating budget for the town's departments, commissions and outside contracts will total $31,762,356 — almost $275,000 less than the original budget proposal from the town's three-member Board of Selectmen in March, but still 1.39 percent more than the current year's budget.

The budget for capital projects came in at $11,394,018 — a more than 18-percent increase over last year's spending plan for capital projects.

First Selectman Daniel Steward said he proposed the increase mostly to address road improvements across the town, a new parking lot and gas tanks at the police department, and mandated expenses such as dashboard cameras in police cruisers.

The capital budget passed Thursday is lower than the proposal passed by the Board of Selectmen after the RTM reduced it by nearly $500,000 Tuesday.

Uncertainty over the state's contributions to municipal education and transportation grants next year loomed over the RTM's decision on the education budget.

Because of possible cuts from the legislature to Education Cost Sharing grants and transportation funding, the board approved a $461,473 cut to the the school board budget approved by the Board of Finance in March, leaving the total allocated for education next year at $45.9 million.

The approved school budget represents a 1.14 percent increase over the current fiscal year's amount.

Superintendent Thomas W. Giard came to Thursday's meeting suggesting more than $100,000 in cuts based on projected savings on fuel and costs to LEARN, the regional nonprofit that operates the magnet Friendship School.

The RTM approved those cuts, and a motion by RTM member Susan Driscoll, a Democrat, to cut the budget even further by $350,000.

"A good school system is good for the town," Driscoll said. "However, we need to budget with what we know we have."

A group of school district employees sitting at the back of the Town Hall auditorium Thursday clapped at defense from an RTM member of keeping class sizes as low as possible, and expressed disappointment when the RTM took the two votes to reduce the budget.

The nearly $500,000 cut from the Board of Finance-approved school budget was the largest cut the RTM had made to the school budget in several years, according to Steward.

It will be up to Giard and the Board of Education to identify from where the cuts will come.

m.shanahan@theday.com