HOPKINTON — Voters said yes to the town’s proposed $22.96-million spending plan and yes to all six ballot questions last night in what was the town’s first financial referendum in its 250-year history.

The budget vote was 241 in favor and 84 against.

The approved budget includes $5.7 million for town services and $17.3 million, previously approved by voters, for the Chariho Regional School District.

Council President Vincenzo Cordone welcomed the results as a stamp of approval from voters.

“They understood that the budget was very lean,” Cordone said. “The town really did its best to keep its cost low.”

The budget had to be cut by $177,575 to reflect the loss of anticipated state aid, reducing the total increase to $704,956, or 3.17 percent from the current year.

A nay vote to the budget would have forced the town to revert to the current year’s budget while absorbing a 3.4-percent increase in its contribution to the Chariho Regional School District.

Voters also approved six questions that asked permission for the town to:

• Negotiate tax breaks with businesses for up to 10 years. The vote was 198 to 131.

Cordone said the Town Council needed the authorization to negotiate such breaks to be able to compete with other towns in bringing industry to Hopkinton.

• Transfer $80,000 in Educational Impact Fees to offset the town’s contribution to the school district. The vote was 212 to 100.

• Transfer an estimated $48,000 in the town’s sick leave fund to a new benefits reserve account to pay lump-sum employee benefits upon their termination. The vote was 178 to 138.

• Transfer any unused funds in the Public Works Department 2006-07 budget to a restricted public works capital account. The vote was 235 to 72.

• Transfer $3,000 that had been earmarked for the town’s Comprehensive Plan but not used into the restricted Comprehensive Plan account. The vote was 207 to 103.

• Study the costs, including administrative changes and physical improvements, to return the town’s fifth- and sixth-graders — both in and out of the Chariho district — to the local elementary school. The vote was 186 to 135.

Councilwoman Barbara Capalbo, who had proposed the nonbinding elementary school measure, said the Town Council will form a committee — possibly the Hopkinton Educational Options Committee, which currently has only two members — to study the options of bringing the fifth- and sixth-graders back to their home school as well as improvements at the Hope Valley and Ashaway elementary schools and the 1904 Ashaway School, which was vacated last year.

marmenta@projo.com