Mayor Harold Broadwell recessed the meeting twice to confer with commissioners over the process.

During the first recess, he complained to Commissioner Carol Hinnant about the questions she was asking.

“You’ve had six weeks to ask all these questions,” Broadwell told Hinnant.

She replied that the only discussions commissioners had were about capital expenditures, not items in the general operational budget.

Following a short discussion, Broadwell reconvened the meeting and allowed Hinnant to ask her questions.

“I’ll skip some of them since no one seems to be interested,” Hinnant said.

Hinnant’s questions concerned a host of topics, including whether the town could improve its investment earnings, which have dropped from $136,000 to a projected $39,000 in the 2009-10 budget.

She also asked what the town gets for its $48,000 in subscriptions and dues. That money pays for memberships in organizations such as the League of Municipalities and the Mayor’s Association, among other things.

Broadwell called a second recess a short time later after a series of motions created confusion.

Commissioner Bill Connolly initially made a motion to adopt the budget, but Commissioner Sid Baynes amended the motion to adopt the budget with a handful of deletions.

Connolly then amended that motion to essentially ignore Baynes’ amendment and vote on the budget as proposed. Broadwell initially accepted Connolly’s amendment after town attorney Brian Pridgen ruled it was proper.

But Baynes persisted and showed Broadwell language in a document that questioned Broadwell’s ruling. That caused Broadwell to call the second recess. Broadwell, Pridgen and Baynes conferred briefly while Hinnant turned off the microphone in front of Baynes to keep the conversation from being broadcast throughout the room.

After a few minutes, Broadwell reconvened the meeting and ruled that Connolly’s motion was not in order.

At that point, Baynes agreed to withdraw his amendment and the budget was adopted on a 3-2 vote with Baynes and Hinnant voting against it.

The $5.9 million budget calls for the tax rate to remain at 49 cents per $100 and includes no increase in fees for services. Town employees will receive a 2 percent cost of living increase, but there will be no merit pay increases.

No new positions would be created unless the town wins grants to pay for them. The budget also includes $42,000 to continue economic development efforts with Holland Consulting and $20,000 as the town’s share of creating bus service for eastern Wake County.