The board also considered use of fund balance to reduce the tax burden on residents.
If approved by the council and voters at referendum, the effective tax increase would be 0.59 percent, from 34.76 to 34.97 mils.
During the meeting, the finance board closed discussions that had spanned several meetings by considering a cut of $210,000 to the education budget.
As Matthew Mihalcik, finance board member, made the motion, he acknowledged that the town does not have line item authority over the education budget, but said his analysis of the education budget shows some overages and felt there was room for a reduction.
When Finance Director Bob Tait noted the impact of the pandemic on the budget, Mr. Mihalcik explained that heâd examined budgets for multiple years prior to 2019-20 to identify significant year-end transfers from those line items.