TIVERTON — The resumption of the annual Financial Town Meeting tomorrow night was to be largely a procedural affair, leading to yet another recess.

But town officials aren’t so sure about that anymore.

They say they have concerns that a relatively small number of voters could move forward with budget cuts deep enough to fundamentally alter the character of the town — without a word from those who want to maintain the current level of municipal services.

Last Wednesday, the Financial Town Meeting recessed after citizens signaled they would not allow the current tax levy of $26,909,360 to increase more than 5 percent, or $1,345,468, for a total of $28,254,828.

The decision was made on a vote of 255 to 155, or by 2 percent of the town’s 11,744 registered voters.

In all, the Budget Committee has sought a levy of about $30.1 million — about $2 million more than the voters authorized last week — to avoid what the committee has termed an “unacceptable decline in services.”

Town Council president Louise Durfee and council member Brian Medeiros urged those who want to maintain existing services to turn out for the resumption of the Financial Town Meeting tomorrow night at 7 in the high school gymnasium.

Medeiros predicted that those who want to limit the tax increase will take action to finalize budget cuts tomorrow.

“I hope enough people show up so that the Town Council gets a sense of whether [last week’s] vote reflects the majority will of the town,” Medeiros said.

“Does a majority want services to continue at a reasonable level, or do they want to take a meat cleaver” to the budget, he asked.

Durfee said she was concerned last Wednesday that she hadn’t heard the voices of people “who enjoy summer recreation, a good education, the need for a rescue service and a police department.”

“Those are the people who have roots in the town, are an integral part of the town, and put their shoulders to the wheel” to do the work of the town through many volunteer boards and commissions, Durfee said.

“I hope that at the next meeting those voices will be heard,” she said.

“We can’t have the community so segregated that it is pulling apart. We need people to take a community view in the town,” Durfee said.

The rancor of a taxpayers’ revolt has played out in neighboring Portsmouth during the last two years, in the aftermath of a special Financial Town Meeting held in August 2006.

The debate leading up to the so-called “tent meeting” focused on a $1.1-million cut to the schools, which was enacted by about 10 percent of the town’s electorate by a margin of fewer than 100 votes.

In a final motion to adopt a bottom line for the overall tax levy, the leader of the taxpayer group Portsmouth Concerned Citizens tacked on a $633,000 reduction in municipal services — without discussion.

Most people who attended the meeting — including those who voted for the bottom line — didn’t realize government sustained a cut until a day later, when they read about it in the newspaper.

Eventually, the Superior Court reversed much of the reduction imposed on the schools.

And the Town Council dipped into Portsmouth’s general fund to help offset the limitations in spending imposed by the Portsmouth Concerned Citizens — a point that rankles the organization’s leadership to this day.

In the meantime, the town has been unable to afford much-needed increases in staffing to the Police and Fire departments, with overtime costs increasing to pay for minimum manning requirements.

Medeiros suggested last week that events in Tiverton may move as fast tomorrow night as they did in Portsmouth two years ago. (That town’s voters have since replaced the town meeting with a daylong referendum.)

“We need guidance from the people of Tiverton,” Medeiros said. Cutting $2 million from the Budget Committee’s recommendation could mean an end to free trash pickup and closing a school sometime in the future, among other things, he said.

While state law says the tax levy may increase no more than 5 percent in the fiscal year beginning July 1, the town Budget Committee had obtained permission from the state Office of Municipal Affairs to exceed the cap for two main reasons:

•To begin paying off the renovations of the Fort Barton and Pocasset elementary schools, approved by voters in 2004, along with the construction of a new elementary school, which opened last fall.

•To compensate for a decline in projected non-tax revenue, principally the fact that the town can no longer afford the practice of dipping into the general fund to keep taxes down.

Budget Committee also sought to provide an allowance for uncollectible taxes and tax abatements. The lack of such a provision in the last couple of years has eroded the general fund to a level which barely meets the requirements of the Home Rule Charter for financial reserves, according to the Budget Committee.

The Home Rule Charter also sets the date for the Financial Town Meeting — the third Wednesday in May — and provides for a recess of just one week.

Town officials have said they would need at least a month to rework their recommendations in light of last week’s vote.

gmacris@projo.com