Your vote matters. Probably more so than even in a presidential election, your attendance at Wilton’s Annual Town Meeting next week really matters. You get a direct say on how much you’ll pay in taxes and how your tax money gets spent.
The Town Meeting is being held Tuesday, May 1, starting at 7:30 p.m. at the Wilton High School Clune Auditorium. Town officials present the FY’19 budget they propose–how much money they need to run the town and schools–and it gets debated. People can make motions from the floor to cut the presented town and school budgets–motions can only be made to reduce the budgets, not increase. Attendees vote on those motions and eventually a budget is approved to present to the entire town to vote on. That’s how your tax rate gets decided.
Voting begins after the meeting Tuesday night and then continues Saturday, May 5, again at the Clune Auditorium, from 8 a.m.-6 p.m.. Voting only takes 10 minutes at most. Typically Wilton has very low turnout–despite the question really being, “How much should you pay in taxes, and how do you want the town to spend that money?”
Don’t you want your answers to be heard?
Do you want the school budget to be approved as the Board of Education proposed it? Do you want the town budget to be approved as the Board of Selectmen proposed it? Do you oppose the proposed budgets?
However you feel, attending the Town Meeting is critical–every voter gets a say on setting the proposed budget. You may not realize it, but you have a great deal of power to decide how much you pay in taxes and how your tax dollars get spent.
Come flex that power Tuesday, May 1.