TIVERTON — The Town Council tonight will consider a proposed municipal budget of $15,849,758, which includes a modest 4.4 percent increase in overall operating expenses but a whopping 50 percent boost in debt service.

Town Administrator W. Glenn Steckman 3rd said yesterday that between municipal services and the added cost of borrowing, he envisions an increase of $1.10 to $1.25 in the current tax rate of $10.24. The council meets at Town Hall tonight at 7.

He said the cost of paying off the town’s bonded indebtedness will jump to an estimated $3,786,158 in the next fiscal year from $2,244,257 in the current fiscal year as the impact of $20 million worth of school remodeling begins to hit taxpayers in the pocket.

For about the past nine years, the town has dipped into the general fund to offset the rise in the tax rate.

But the town can no longer afford to continue on the same course because the town’s reserve funds have fallen too low, he said.

He declined to be more specific, except to say that the general fund is expected go below $2.2 million in a forthcoming auditor’s report.

Steckman said that the cost of debt service would be exempt from the maximum 5-percent increase in the tax levy that is permitted by the state’s new property tax relief law.

The 5 percent ceiling affects town operating and capital expenses, which now stand at $13,018, 050, according to Steckman’s calculations.

The new law will allow municipal government to collect only $420,460 in new tax revenue in the next fiscal year.

That figure does not include the schools, which would be allotted another $965,413 in growth from the tax levy on proposed education budget of about $25.4 million.

Debt service aside, the new tax relief legislation pegs next year’s total tax levy for operating and maintenance costs expenses at $29,103,337, or $1,385,873 more than this year’s limit.

Steckman said he will propose additional decreases in operating expenses, or adding revenue through user fees, to help mitigate the burden on taxpayers from the jump in borrowing costs.

But at the same time, he proposes increasing the town’s capital budget for equipment and maintenance to $569,990 from $376,667, according to a budget summary he provided.

“We need to maintain and take care of what we have,” Steckman said.

gmacris@projo.com