Under the first budget draft that Wiscasset selectmen and the town’s budget committee will look at, municipal spending would hike $53,282. The $5,904,501 starting figure is less than 1 percent higher than the municipal budget that voters passed last year.

Town officials released the figures Tuesday night, ahead of upcoming budget talks. Selectmen and budget committee members will meet at 8 a.m. Saturday, April 4, at the municipal building, Town Manager Marian Anderson said.

Anderson asked selectmen and budget committee members on hand Tuesday to let her know if there are any department heads they don’t feel they need to hear from at the April 4 meeting.

The municipal budget is separate from the school budget.

Capital spending items eyed for the next municipal budget include $170,000 to replace a 2003 ambulance, $15,000 for a response vehicle for a paramedic;  a new, $75,000 trailer for the transfer station; and $30,000 for  sport utility vehicle for the police department.

The budget draft proposes a drop in road and sidewalk construction and repair, from the $206,801 budgeted last year down to $150,000. A March 17 memo from Poblic Works Director Doug Fowler to Anderson lists Hooper, Water, Fore, Summer, Washington and Upper Federal streets as priorities for paving downtown; elsewhere in town, Page Avenue and Old Bath and Beechnut Hill roads are priorities, according to Tuesday’s memo.

In another financial item Tuesday night, Chris Backman of the town’s auditing firm RHR Smith & Company, said, based on the budget year that ended last June 30, “I think the town’s in great condition.” The million-dollar surplus would be enough to run the town for about two months, he said.

“You’re going in the right direction,” Backman said.

In recent years, selectmen have worked to use less of the town’s fund balance to offset taxes, so that more money would be available if needed.