Wiscasset selectmen voted 4-1 Monday to put off setting the next property tax rate until Sept. 20. Selectman Jeff Slack cast the lone dissenting vote.

After Chairman Judy Colby called the meeting to order in the hearing room, Selectman David Cherry motioned for the board to postpone setting the rate that determines what property owners will pay this year.

The postponement was to allow time for the auditor to determine how much the town could safely apply from the undesignated fund account. There was also some question as to how much is in the account.

“The money we need is there,” Slack said afterwards.

Selectmen want the town treasurer, assessor and auditor present for the Sept. 20 meeting.

On Sept. 6, selectmen went against the advice of their auditor, voting 3-2 to take $1 million from the fund balance to reduce an anticipated 14.1-percent tax increase.

At that meeting, Chris Bachman from RHR Smith & Co., the town’s auditor, warned that taking more than $600,000 from the $1.7 million fund balance could leave the town short of cash during the coming fiscal year. Earmarking $600,000 from the fund balance would have increased the tax rate to $18.71 per thousand dollars of assessed valuation. The 2015 rate was $16.40. Slack, Ben Rines Jr, and Judy Flanagan voted to take $1 million from the fund balance. Colby and Cherry dissented.