As Mayor Setti Warren prepared last week to pitch a property tax increase for a range of new buildings and expenses, including schools, state officials made a demand that may make it tougher to sell the increase to voters next spring.

Warren has spent the past several months meeting with aldermen to gather support f or an approximate-ly $11 million override of Proposition2½ that would go toward three new schools, a fire station, road improvements, more police officers, and dealing with the increasing school enrollment, according to several officials who heard the proposal.