WESTERLO — The town’s general fund increased with several employee raises in the 2015 adopted budget for $2,633,877 while the highway fund remained flat, which Supervisor Richard Rapp says will not increase taxes higher than the state-set levy limit.

The total amount of taxes raised for 2015 will be $1,263,479, according to the spending plan adopted unanimously by the town board in November, a 2.2-percent increase over the 2014 tax levy.

As part of the town’s calculation for the tax-levy cap, $12,000 left unlevied from the 2014 budget gets added on top of the allowable limit on increases generally thought of as 2 percent per year.

Among the general-fund raises to employees, the town council had a 2-percent increase to $14,790, for all four members combined; the court with a 7.9 percent increase to $31,500; the supervisor’s clerk, with an 8-percent increase, to $38,872; and the town clerk with an 18-percent increase to $40,700. The salary for the part-time supervisor remains unchanged at $15,000.

“She went up quite a bit this year because she puts in a tremendous, tremendous amount of time,” Rapp said of full-time Town Clerk Kathleen Spinnato. He said that increase was for both more hours and higher pay.

Highway employees, who Rapp said are not unionized, did not get raises. Asked about the reason for a variety in increases to personal-services lines, Rapp said the budget was prepared by the accounting firm Pattison, Koskey, Howe, & Bucci. “I didn’t ask,” he said.

Rapp said he did have a hand in shaping the budget, with his notes for the firm at the beginning, but he declined to specify what he said he disliked in the plan.

“It’s something new,” said Rapp of the accounting firm, which he called “the auditors.” “It’s the first time.” He declined to explain why the town was using the firm.

The state comptroller’s office reported in its municipal audit released in March that the Westerlo Town Board did not align its budgeted revenues for the water fund with rate schedules, leading to a revenue shortfall that was filled by the general fund. This led to a debt accumulated by the water district, which Rapp said the water district is making a payment toward in the form of $10,000 from its $82,000 in estimated revenues for 2015.

Money budgeted for paychecks to park employees and in the highway fund decreased, Rapp said, because three workers resigned and one of the positions was left vacant. As a result, the town’s total cost for employee benefits was reduced in the budget.

The money for spending in the town’s parks was increased from $1,000 to $20,000 since the town plans to purchase a large new mower for maintenance, Rapp said.

Some of the money set out for recreational and cultural activities was cut back, with the youth committee budget down by half and the community activities committee with no appropriation, down from $500 in 2014. Rapp said the committee lacked willing volunteers.

“Too bad. They did a good job,” he said. “You know how it is, you get a group of people working together and somebody says ‘red,’ and somebody says ‘blue,’ and somebody says ‘black.’”

One of the town’s major expenses, dealing with an aging highway garage, is on the horizon. But it doesn’t affect the 2015 budget as the town has not yet determined a project cost and expects to borrow the money. The board had a long discussion in October about the project, which it had deliberated over in the past year and talked about for several years before. When bids were finally submitted, the board voted it down in an even split, with some unhappy with the cost of the lowest bid and wanting to investigate the cost of a new building.

For now, the town’s debt obligations include $31,800 on two large trucks for the highway department and $10,000 on a new pickup truck with a sander and plow for the highway superintendent, according to Rapp.

Overall, budgeted spending for 2015 is increasing by 3.3 percent, or $84,422. That includes two lighting districts ($7,268 total), the water district ($72,000), the library ($78,644), the fire district ($191,305) and the ambulance squad ($100,000).

A large portion of revenues for most municipalities comes from sales-tax money collected by the county and distributed to individual towns, villages, and cities based on population. Westerlo’s budget next year anticipates getting $1,080,000 from sales tax, up from $963,000 that was expected in 2014. The 2013 budget put the number at $920,000, when the town actually received $1,063,799.

Estimated revenues for the general fund total $1,102,382, with $450,482 from property taxes, $550,000 from sales tax, $30,000 from taxes on mortgages, $20,000 from fines and forfeited bail, and more from smaller state and local sources.

In the highway fund, revenues total $1,064,650, with $530,000 from sales tax, $433,950 from property taxes, $100,000 from the state’s Consolidated Local Street and Highway Improvement Program (CHIPs), and $700 from interest.

The total spending for the general fund is $1.1 million, which includes $90,000, an increase of $5,500, for ambulance services from the Albany County Sheriff’s Office, $14,375 for the zoning board, $15,875 for the planning board, $175,000 for refuse and garbage.

For the highway fund, spending is delineated as $295,000 for road maintenance, $75,000 for machinery, $240,000 for snow removal, $1,000 for bridges, $66,205 for retirement benefits, $23,000 for Social Security, $30,000 for workers’ compensation, $500 for disability insurance, $120,779 for medical insurance, $10,000 for other benefits, and the rest for debt.