SPRINGFIELD _ The Springfield town board unanimously adopted a budget for 2007 totaling more than $1 million with a tax levy of $485,000 at Monday night’s meeting.

The town board decided to take approximately $18,500 more from the general fund savings account to reduce the tax levy from the preliminary budget’s total of $503,500.

The initial figure would have been a 7 percent increase over the 2006 tax levy of $470,800.

The approved tax levy of $485,000 represents an increase of 3.9 percent over the previous year.

The town board initially planned to add an additional $32,700 to the $103,470 in unexpended funds already being applied to the 2007 budget in order to have no increase in taxes.

After some discussion, the board decided that having a slight increase now was better than having a large jump next year.

Councilman Richard Rathbun said it was sound business to have a slight increase instead of no increase.

The total spending plan calls for approximately $1.16 million in appropriations, up $200,000 from the preliminary budget. Revenue also jumped $200,000 to $476,900.

The additional $200,000 was added to both sides of the budget because of money that will be borrowed from the general fund savings account to pay for the replacement of a bridge on Bartlett Road that was damaged by the flooding in June.

The town will have to pay for the bridge initially, but will be reimbursed by FEMA.

The figures were added to the budget after a discussion in which councilman Jim Willsey, resident Fred Culbert and county representative Keith McCarty said items being paid for using money from the town’s savings account should be included in the budget.

"We ought to know what the heck we’ve got and what we’re going to spend it on," Culbert said.

Town supervisor Tom Armstrong said he had no problem adding the numbers to the budget, but hadn’t done so beforehand because the FEMA reimbursement might not come in 2007.

He also said the town has $359,000 in savings for the general fund and $80,000 in savings for the highway fund.

The town board adopted the budget after nearly three hours of discussion, including an hour-long public hearing during which Culbert and Ken Ostrander asked Armstrong about numerous items in the budget.

One item Culbert asked about was why Armstrong would receive $1,500 as director of finance, a position that was not included in previous budgets.

Armstrong said he added the money in because most town supervisors pay someone around $5,500 to do the bookkeeping for them, yet receive approximately the same salary he does.

Armstrong keeps the financial records in Springfield.

"I figured I was worth, $1,500," he said.

One of the items Ostrander inquired about was the comprehensive plan.

He said some estimates of the comprehensive plan development’s cost came in at about $25,000, yet only $4,700 was included in the 2007 budget.

After the public hearing and during a budget discussion among town board members, Armstrong said he would "rather cancel the comprehensive planning committee" than spend $25,000, a figure which came from the planning board.

Councilman Dan Rosen said the $4,700 wasn’t "anywhere near enough" and recommended that $10,000 be set aside for the comprehensive plan this year and $15,000 included in the 2007 budget.

Questions were also raised about Armstrong receiving $1,800 as dog control officer, double what he received last year for doing the job.

Armstrong said he only took the job because nobody else wanted it and that if the position wasn’t worth the $1,800, he didn’t want it.

He said if anybody else wanted to do it, he’d be welcome to hand over the job.