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REHOBOTH - When a new $28 billion state budget was approved earlier this month, most of the complaints were about it being too big.

But Tuesday night, Gov. Deval Patrick got an earful from local taxpayers who complained that spending was too low.

Speaker after speaker at a town meeting-style gathering politely but pointedly criticized the governor for vetoing spending on a program they hold dear.

Patrick has been holding a series of such meetings around the state, he said, to stay in touch with voters. He was in Rehoboth Tuesday outside Blanding library with about 250 in attendance.

There Patrick heard pleas for more funding for special education, health care, group homes, mosquito control, schools and cities and towns. One speaker, who identified herself as a teacher at Bristol Community College, said Massachusetts lags behind the nation in aid to higher education.

Colleges are hiring more and more part-time instructors instead of highly trained full-time professors to cut costs while higher tuition and fees are driving students away, she said.

Teachers are struggling to keep students in school and get them to graduate, she said.

"We can't operate under this level of funding," she said.

Patrick said he has increased funding for public higher education and is backing borrowing to repair and improve facilities for the first time in 20 years.

However, he said the state is not an "ATM machine," so there are limits to its resources.

"I don't feel we can afford it right now," he said.

Some of the speakers had questions so specific - citing line item numbers from the budget - that the governor said he could not answer them.

But, Kelley Turner of Rehoboth asked about funding for special education.

The governor said local school districts are caught in a bind between providing services and not "busting their budget." He said the state provides some relief for the most expensive programs through a method called "the circuit breaker," but changes may still be needed.

While most of the speakers asked for more funding for their favorite programs, one woman said she favors a ballot question that would eliminate the state income tax.

Patrick said passage of that measure would wipe out 40 percent of the state's revenue and force massive budget cuts. One speaker called the tax cut idea "sheer madness."

The governor said he believes part of the motivation behind the call to repeal the tax is frustration over the mismanagement and runaway spending on the Boston Big Dig construction project.

The governor said he is a fan of traffic improvements from the project, but the inflated price undermined public confidence in government.

As for the conflicting messages about lower taxes and higher spending that he got from the audience, Patrick said it is evidence that public officials need to do a better job explaining to to taxpayers how their money is funding valuable programs.