NORTH ATTLEBORO - The town is bracing for two possible impacts from Gov. Deval Patrick's recently announced budget cuts, even though local aid was not specifically targeted. Town Administrator Mark Fisher said he and Town Treasurer Diana Asanza have been carefully analyzing the state's cuts to determine whether there will be any impact on the town's budget.

"The devil's in the details," Fisher said. "There are two areas of concern."

The first impact may be related to the removal of a tax exemption for telephone poles. While that would result in a boost of about $50,000 for the town, that money will be subtracted from local aid.

"For every dollar, they are going to reduce state aid by that amount of money," Fisher said, adding that it is not clear when that the town will have an opportunity to collect the money before the state aid is subtracted.

Another area of concern is related to funding for water and sewer relief, Fisher said. The governor eliminated $20 million in sewer rate relief payments and North Attleboro was scheduled to receive $47,000 from the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority. The elimination of those payments will not affect the town's general budget, but will have an impact on the sewer rates, Fisher said. Some of the governor's cuts will require action from the state Legislature, so Fisher recommended the town wait and see what happens before making any changes to the town budget.

Selectmen agreed to schedule a special town meeting on Jan. 5 to address any budgetary shortfalls.

In other budget news, the town's assessors report that new growth revenue, or money collected on the tax rolls for the first time from new construction, has been certified by the state at $313,000.

The good news is that the town had estimated new growth to be $250,000 in the 2009 fiscal year budget.

The bad news is that about $71,500 comes from a new tax on telecommunications equipment, which was previously exempt from personal property taxes.

Statewide, owners of telecommunications equipment have filed an appeal of the newly enacted tax.

Assessor John Bellissimo said the town should sock that money away in the overlay account until the appeal is decided since the town will have to refund the money if the appeal is successful.

AMY DeMELIA can be reached at 508-236-0334 or at ademelia@thesunchronicle.com.