REHOBOTH — For the third year in a row, voters will decide whether their town should exceed a state law that limits how much taxes can be raised from one year to the next.

The first two attempts to override the Proposition 2½ mandate were overwhelmingly rejected by voters, even though taxpayers approved operating budgets that exceeded the cap at the Annual Town Meeting before the election.

This year’s election is scheduled for July 22, a date the selectmen recently chose because school and town officials couldn’t agree on the wording of the ballot questions. Others taking part in the discussion thought one referendum was necessary.

If approved, the school district will receive nearly $450,000 more to restore teachers in Rehoboth’s middle and elementary schools. Another $25,000 will be directed to the Rehoboth Agricultural and Natural Resources Preservation Trust Fund, which is used primarily to buy land to protect the town’s rural and open space from developers.

The town’s legal counsel originally drafted two ballot questions, one related to the district’s additional dollars and the other for the trust. The lawyers also suggested using an amount for the education question that school officials believed was “incorrect and misleading.”

That question asked if the town should raise, with additional taxes, $970,201 more for the school district. The figure is how much more the district is getting from Rehoboth in the upcoming fiscal year.

Yet it isn’t the amount that brings the town’s budget over the state cap. The Finance Committee presented a budget that didn’t exceed the levy limit at the Town Meeting two months ago. In it, the committee gave a $524,000 increase over this year’s town allocation for the schools. The total amount toward the district’s operating expenses would have been $11.22 million if approved.

But the voters gave more after school officials said the extra money would restore 11 positions at Beckwith Middle and Palmer River Elementary schools. The amount approved was $11.67 million, or $446,211 over what the Finance Committee was recommending the district receive.

That’s the amount over the cap and that’s the number school officials asked to use for the question.

“That’s a huge difference,” School Committee member Maureen G. Brawley said in a selectmen meeting this month. “People are going to say, ‘What, that’s not what I voted for [at Town Meeting].’”

Board of Selectmen chairman Christopher P. Morra answered, “But that’s the truth. If you do that math, that’s what it is.”

He also explained the town has only certain ways to ask the question because there are strict guidelines from the state’s Department of Revenue. At a subsequent meeting however, the selectmen agreed to language right out of the guidebook. The board nearly copied wording that was given as an example.

It also combined the two referendums into one because all agreed Rehoboth’s entire operating budget would need to be revisited at a Special Town Meeting if residents reject the override. Therefore, it asks residents to exceed the cap by $471,211 — $25,000 for the trust and the rest for the school district.

Town Clerk Kathleen Conti said all three precincts — the town offices, Rehoboth Senior Center and South Fire Station — will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. for the override election and the final day to register to vote is July 2.

Applications for absentee ballot are available at the clerk’s office and a written request is required to obtain a ballot. Additional questions can be answered by calling the clerk and her staff at 252-6502.

apina@projo.com