The Watertown Town Council will collect a smaller salary as a whole in the upcoming fiscal year, but not because lawmakers are taking a pay cut.

Councilman Edward M. Smith isn't receiving a salary and plans not to take one in the upcoming year.

"I don't take a salary," Mr. Smith said. "I don't care about the money. I do this for the people."

Even if the councilman, who was elected in November and hasn't collected a dime, changes his mind, the town won't have the money earmarked to pay him. The line item for the council's salary decreases 19 percent, from $11,697 to $9,426, according to the proposed budget.

Mr. Smith also hasn't provided the town information it needs to cut him a check, Supervisor Joel R. Bartlett said.

Each council member will receive a salary of $3,142, which has increased 4 percent, according to the town's proposed budget.

William P. Reynolds, deputy press secretary for the state comptroller's office, said there is nothing unusual about an elected employee not receiving a salary. The salary Mr. Smith is expected to earn in 2009 should, however, be included in the line item.

"In cases where members choose to waive receipt of their salary, the appropriated amount for that salary would become an unexpended balance," Mr. Reynolds said.

Mr. Bartlett said the 4 percent raises will be extended to the supervisor, the assessor, clerks, typists and justices.

The $3.9 million the town of Watertown plans to spend in the 2009 fiscal year won't be coming from property owners; the proposed budget includes no town tax rate. The town's tax base has increased 3.1 percent, from $282 million in 2008 to nearly $291 million in 2009.

The town Highway Department budget will increase 5.4 percent in the upcoming year, from $866,930 to $934,455. The largest expense, $282,000, is to remove snow. That compares with the $194,233 it spent during the current fiscal year. Rising costs of salt and fuel have driven the increase.

Overall, town spending will increase 8.3 percent, from $3.6 million to $3.9 million. Mr. Bartlett said he expects that the town will have to bond to make improvements to sewer and water projects along the northwest portion of the town near County Route 202. How much that bond will be for is yet to be determined.

"It seems like we've got everything going all at once here," he said. "We're growing at a rate the town of Watertown has never seen before. With that growth, we need to keep up with the demand for services."

Mr. Bartlett said the town will spend about $250,000 to buy down the county's tax rate; that amount mirrors the amount spent in previous years.

The town's unspent fund balance sits at about $860,000. That has increased from about $650,000 the supervisor said was in the fund last year.

"I'd rather have more in there than not enough," Mr. Bartlett said.

Water and sewer rates also are expected to remain the same.

A budget work session will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday at the municipal building on Brookside Drive. The town fiscal year begins Jan. 1.