TIVERTON — For the last couple of years, voters who have turned out to the annual Financial Town Meeting have had to call friends and family to join them in the bleachers of the high school gym before they could get a quorum of 301 registered voters and begin the proceedings.

Town Clerk Nancy Mello says she hopes that won’t happen again tonight, when the meeting is called to order at 7 p.m.

The Financial Town Meeting will have stiff competition for the attention of many townspeople, as two churches in town have scheduled Confirmation this evening as well.

The Budget Committee will recommend a budget of $42,177,451 for the fiscal year beginning July 1, including a tax levy of $30,272,578, which would be $3,363,218 more than the current levy of $26,909,360.

While the docket for the Financial Town Meeting also lists a slightly higher “recommended” budget from the town administrator, that terminology is misleading, according to John DaPonte, a member of the Budget Committee.

“It’s administrator-requested rather than administrator-recommended,” he said.

Only the Budget Committee’s figures will be presented to voters, DaPonte said.

Voters may make changes to line items, but the tax levy cannot exceed the Budget Committee’s recommendation of $30,272,578, the maximum authorized by the state Office of Municipal Affairs, DaPonte said.

The proposed $3.6-million increase in the levy is about twice as much as would be permitted by new property tax relief legislation, had it not been for an exemption granted by the state to compensate for a hike in debt service and a decrease in projected non-tax revenues.

The Budget Committee’s proposal would require an added $1.13 on the tax rate, which would put an extra $400 on the tax bill of the average homeowner.

Schools would receive $25,256,129 and municipal operations would be allocated $13,185,323 in the fiscal year beginning July 1.

Debt service, the main driver of the tax increase, would leap by nearly 50 percent, from $2,254,257, to $3,261,786, to begin paying for renovations under way at the Pocasset and Fort Barton elementary schools.

School operations are expected to feel a squeeze, with the reduction of seven positions planned. Municipal government also faces the prospect of layoffs, although their scope will be worked out in labor negotiations with unions representing town employees.

gmacris@projo.com