AUGUSTA — A $51.4 million city and school budget that would increase taxes by about 1.5 percent is up for a final City Council vote Thursday.

The budget is slightly more than 2 percent higher than the current year’s spending plan.

City Manager William Bridgeo’s initially proposed $51.5 million budget would have required a 3.5 percent tax increase; but councilors said last week that budget changes, including the addition of some previously unbudgeted revenue from corporate property tax assessments, helped reduce the effect on taxpayers.

As proposed, the now-$51.4 million budget would increase the tax rate from $17.30 to $17.55 per $1,000 of property value. That would mean a tax increase of about $31 for the year for the owner of a $125,000 home in Augusta, from the current $2,163 to $2,194.

That same homeowner, before the most recent budget changes, would have been facing a $2,238 tax bill, a $75 increase.

Councilors will consider their final vote on the budget at their meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday in the council chambers at Augusta City Center.

Also at the meeting, Mayor William Stokes is scheduled to read a Memorial Day proclamation.

LITCHFIELD — The town is putting firetrucks and public works vehicles on show to encourage people to vote in support of replacing some of them.

The state of the town’s firetrucks and public works vehicles will be displayed publicly from 7 to 8 p.m. Tuesday in front of the fire station in anticipation of a vote at the annual Town Meeting on a proposal to spend money to improve the fleet.

“It will demonstrate the need to replace and upgrade a number of the Fire Department’s vehicles as well as the need to replace a front-line plow truck, which is one of the four plow trucks,” Town Manager Michael Byron said.

Byron said he will give a presentation at the June 5 display to show how the purchases can be made without increasing the town’s property tax rate.

At the June 16 annual Town Meeting, voters will be asked to approve spending $405,000 for the Fire Department’s capital improvement program, plus $195,000 for a new, side-dump wheeler — essentially a large snowplow truck. The town’s four plow trucks each plow 50 miles of road.

From staff reports