RALEIGH - Board Chairman Joe Bryan played both ends of the Wake commissioners to end up in the budgetary middle, imposing a 2.5-cent property tax rate increase while placing new restrictions on how the school board can spend money.

Bryan, a Republican, voted with three Democrats on Monday to the benefit of the Wake County Public School System, granting a $18.5 million increase for education and scuttling efforts by the board's three other Republicans to provide less.

However, Bryan knuckled the Democrats into a compromise that required them to vote in favor of two restrictions the conservatives had initially proposed.

In a move that has not been used in Wake County for more than a decade, the commissioners will require the school board to ask permission if it wants to adjust spending on any item in the system's budget by more than 15 percent.

Another restriction will hold $3 million in reserve until the commissioners see whether all the new students predicted to enroll in the fall actually materialize.

The school system's 2008 budget overestimated enrollment by about 2,000 students, but officials spent the millions meant to pay for them for other purposes.

As other members of the commissioners staked out positions on either side, Bryan stayed silent about what he would do.

He voted first with the three Democrats to kill a GOP proposal that would have cut the proposed schools budget by $2.6 million and lowered the proposed tax increase by a fraction of a penny. Then he voted with the three Republicans to shoot down a motion by Democrats to provide the schools money in a lump sum with no strings attached.

In the end, Bryan cast the deciding vote to achieve the centrist position on schools he later confirmed he had held all along.

Bryan voted with the Democrats again to prevent other cuts favored by his fellow Republicans, including trims to affordable-housing programs and funding for the arts.

"We effectively approved the county manager's recommended budget with some fine tuning," Bryan said, adding that the new restrictions on the school system would help keep spending in line.

"It makes us more accountable and transparent to the public," he said. "That's what we all should want in local government."

The $984 million county budget approved Monday would set the county's tax rate at 53.4 cents per $100 of property value. Most of the 2.5-cent increase stems from bond spending for schools and other capital projects approved by voters.

The increase would raise the tax bill for a $250,000 house by $62.50 annually, not including the increase many homeowners will face as a result of last year's revaluation.

The tax increase is added to the "revenue-neutral" tax-rate calculated to break even with the average 43 percent increase in property values in the first countywide revaluation in eight years.

The vote Monday left school officials, who asked for $54.7 million in county money, trying to figure out where to make the cuts and how they'll be affected by the new budgeting requirements imposed by the commissioners.

Superintendent Del Burns said the $319.2 million in total funding provided by commissioners won't be enough to maintain the school district's current level of services. He said it needs a $30 million bump just to keep up with growth, inflation and projected state-mandated pay increases.

"There will be changes," he said. "We won't be as effective at providing the current level of service."

The school board is scheduled to discuss budget changes today. Schools administrators had previously presented a list of cuts, largely affecting employee pay and benefits, that could be made if commissioners provided less than they asked for.