North Stonington — After meeting with several individual town departments to hear their budget needs for the upcoming year, the Board of Finance listened Wednesday as First Selectman Shawn Murphy presented his $5.44 million proposed budget.

In a detailed presentation, Murphy went through each line item of the budget and answered several questions from members of the Board of Finance about increases.

In total, the general government budget operating budget was up 3 percent, or $145,725, owing to a handful of increases, including over $50,000 for the full cost of the town's two state troopers, rising health care costs and wage hikes.

Biggest among the staffing changes was a new finance and administration position, recommended in the Town Government Structure Committee's final report.

Murphy said he plans to pay for the $75,000 job by applying a number of savings toward it, including a reduction in highway department labor money, a restructuring of the assistant town clerk role and a move he made earlier this month to combine the economic development coordinator position with the planning and zoning officer.

The town capital budget, which includes money for the abatement and demolition of town buildings as well as a company car for the North Stonington Volunteer Fire Company and $63,987 to re-roof the Highway Department's salt-and-sand building, was down by almost half.

In total, the general government budget is down 7.8 percent.

However, the budget does not include the roughly $400,000 "pre-payment" for the Center for Emergency Services building, added last year by the Board of Finance to the capital budget to avoid tax hikes overlapping with the school building project.

The town's debt from other projects has been reduced by 70 percent, with only $100,000 required to start paying a bond anticipatory note on the emergency services building.

Wages increased by two percent for both union and non-union positions, totaling around $45,000 in increases.

The town's three lake associations on Billings, Blue and Wyassup lake, however, did request $15,000 for control of invasive plants growing on the lake bottom, and that was included in the budget.

An additional $39,000 was added in the local capital improvement fund, which will be offset by state grants.

Murphy also suggested an upcoming town hall-style meeting to discuss the town's potential options in the face of unexpected state aid cuts with state Sen. Heather Somers and Rep. Diana Urban, as well as use upcoming tri-board meetings to develop some budget scenarios based on different aid the town might receive.

"We should be putting together 'what if' scenarios so when the legislature approves a budget, we can already identify what we can do to get there," Murphy said.

The Board of Finance will meet at 7:30 p.m. next Wednesday, March 29, to hear budget presentations from the town Highway Department, Fire Company and the Ambulance Association.

n.lynch@theday.com