PALERMO -- Over protests from a vocal minority, voters at Saturday's town meeting approved raising more than $636,000 from local taxes for 2008 municipal expenditures.

The amount is an increase of more than $300,000 from 2007, according to Selectman Harry Dean Potter, who tracked expenditures on his laptop through the six-hour meeting.

When Moderator Richard Thompson read Article 50, asking if voters wanted to override the local tax cap set by state law, Potter could tell them:

n they needed to approve an increase in the property tax levy in the amount of $291,600 above the $239,166 state-set limit; and

n the 2008 tax rate would probably be 20 to 25 percent higher than the 2007 rate.

Last year's tax rate was $12.10 per $1,000 of valuation, Potter said.

He projected 2008's maximum rate as $14.88 per $1,000. Former assessor Lee Jackson suggested $14.50 per $1,000 was more likely.

Robert Harmon and Mark Brundage led the effort to control spending.

As voters began considering the request for $30,000 as seed money for a professional revaluation, a proposal they rejected, Harmon offered a motion to act on the tax cap article before reviewing municipal expenditures. His motion died for lack of a second.

Harmon and Brundage repeatedly questioned proposed spending and urged reductions, with limited success. They advocated a vote against raising the local tax cap, even though it would have meant going back through the previous actions to find $291,600 in cuts.

Thirty-three voters approved overriding the limit to 13 opposed.

The bulk of the additional local money will be spent on town roads. Voters endorsed spending $81,000 in local funds, in addition to excise tax revenue and state funds, for road improvements and $200,000 for repaving and paving.

The 2008-09 school budget will require $1.03 million in local funds. School Union 133 Superintendent Gregory Potter distributed revised figures, based on state information received a few days earlier, which increased the local share in response to a decrease in anticipated state funding.

The total school budget must now be validated -- or rejected -- by a one-question referendum vote, scheduled for 4 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, March 18, in the Town Office meeting room.

Gregory Potter said if voters reject the budget March 18, the School Committee must prepare a new budget to be submitted to another open town meeting followed by another referendum.

Voters rejected several changes presented to them, refusing to:

n change the town clerk, tax collector and treasurer from elected to appointed officers;

n amend the shoreland zoning map to delete Bear Pond;

n allow selectmen instead of town meeting voters to change building permit fees;

n reduce the Board of Assessors from five to three members;

n authorize the town to keep town clerk's and motor vehicle registrars' fees and raise the salaries for those positions in compensation; and

n raise $300,000 to create a surplus and avoid the annual tax anticipation loan.

No one voted in favor of the $300,000 proposal.

Voters did approve eliminating the traditional practice of submitting bids for elective offices, going to a salary system instead. They approved a $5,000 salary for the previously-unpaid road commissioner, and $3,000 for health benefits for a full-time Town Office worker.

On three articles, voters approved a little more than the recommended funding:

n On Palermo Rescue Unit spokesman Patricia Glidden's motion, they added $4,000 to the public health and safety account, bringing it to $56,050, to cover increased costs of dispatching fire and rescue services.

n They gave Palermo Historical Society $2,000 instead of the $1,000 requested, to cover reimbursement of taxes on the society's new home, pictured on the cover of the annual town report, and a donation.

n Supporters of New Hope for Women persuaded them to add a $915 donation to the list of out of town charities that were funded. Voters duplicated last year's list, with the $915 addition and a rearrangement: $400 was taken from Waldo County Community Action Partners and the same amount donated to AMVET Post 150 Liberty Food Pantry.

At 3:30 p.m., the meeting was adjourned until 4 p.m. Tuesday, March 18.