To the Editor:
It is highly important that we all plan to be at the Annual Town Meeting at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, May 6 at the Clune Center.
The reason is that the town budget as proposed by our town’s Board of Finance (BOF) can be amended by floor vote at that meeting, but only in a downward direction.
It can be expected that such a reduction motion will be made, and it is important than enough town voters opposed to a reduction be on hand to successfully vote down that motion. The budget that results from that May 6 Annual Town Meeting is what we all get to vote on in our ballots cast either right after that meeting or on Saturday, May 10, when balloting continues.
The BOF’s proposed budget is a very good one and reflects particularly close coordination between the BOF and the Board of Education (BOE). The BOE met the BOF’s guidance exactly, and the results from the BOF’s excellent town survey show a majority of residents in favor of the BOE budget. The BOE budget accounts for two-thirds of our total town budget.
As both the chair and the vice chair of the BOF have strongly underscored, the work of the BOE in achieving that goal has been especially challenging given scheduled salary increases under union contracts in the coming year of 4% — with those salary costs comprising by far the majority of our school budget. Both boards also emphasized how outstanding our school’s academic performance is, and in fact the objective metrics measuring that performance have never been more impressive.
The Board of Selectmen also worked hard in the final days before the budget proposal was set by the BOF to bring its proposed budget down much closer to the BOF’s guidance.
So the bottom line is that this town budget as presented by the BOF strongly needs our approval. In order to assure that it does not go through a last-minute downward adjustment by floor vote at the meeting, we need to be on hand in person at the Annual Town Meeting at 7 p.m. on May 6.
On a separate point for the Annual Town Meeting: the Ambler Farm bonding issue will also be on the ballot. That is a very important project to live up to our contractual obligations as a town to help in the care for this important town resource and to provide our support to Ambler Farm’s ongoing work that engages so many children as well as adults and is a keystone of our civic activities together. Much of the expenses of operating the Farm are borne by the nonprofit that operates it; this is simply our town supplementally supporting that nonprofit’s highly important work even as we live up to our contractual responsibilities.
Steve Hudspeth