SALEM — Salem residents approved a 1.9 percent increase in the town’s levy at the annual meeting of electors Tuesday.

Residents at the meeting voted 80-30 to approve the $3.4 million levy, which will fund town operations for 2010.

Along with the levy, residents at the meeting cast an advisory vote supporting the town’s proposed budget for next year, and voted to approve town highway expenditures for 2010.

Although there were more than 100 residents at the meeting, few spoke at the public hearing that preceded the vote. The 45-minute public hearing was dominated by one resident — Jim Valentine, the husband of Town Chairman Linda Valentine.

Jim Valentine spoke for 40 minutes, using the time to question line items in the budget, to criticize the board and Town Administrator Patrick Casey, and to accuse the board of violating state law in past budget practices.

“I don’t believe the Town Board is representing the interests of Salem,” Valentine said.

While he said he was satisfied with the levy, he was critical of the budget itself. He said he worried the budget lacked detail — for instance including a line in the highway department budget for paving, but not delineating what roads would be paved.

Highway Superintendent Mike Murdock said detailed plans for paving are not determined until after winter road damage is assessed in the spring.

“I’m concerned that the Town Board and the administrator don’t have the discipline” to carry out the budget, Valentine said. “It’s almost like there is a shell game going on.”

He also specifically criticized Supervisor Patrick O’Connell, who was absent from the meeting, for his vote as a member of the Community Library Board demoting the former library director.

“I just want you to remember when its election time that Mr. O’Connell does not appear to be representing the town of Salem,” he said.

Prior to his lengthy comments, Jim Valentine said he was not representing his wife’s views in his comments.

“She can speak for herself,” he said.

Salem had a lengthy and occasionally contentious budget process this year. In past years each department presented a separate budget. This year Casey, the town’s first administrator, created a unified budget, a process that follows more typical municipal accounting standards.

Supervisor Dennis Faber, responding to Valentine, said the 2010 budget was an improvement on past practice.

“In the years that I have been on the Town Board, and thanks to Mr. Casey, this is the best budget we have ever had. Budgets we have had in the past have been nothing this detailed.”