The slides below provide graphics that better explain.
The town meeting voters are the keeper of the check book & bylaw approver. Not any individual or board.
- I encourage you to review the slides that clearly explain all that goes into creating a municipal budget.
- The process should start in September with the Assessors, Accountant and Treasurer.
- The Town will receive from the State its certified Free Cash (unused from previous budget).
- New Growth is pulled together by the Assessors.
- A tax rate is recommended to the BOS by the Assessors and set by November/early December the latest in a hearing by the BOS.
- Boards and department budgets should be submitted early December with public BOS hearings between with BOS by late December.
- The Finance Committee reviews the BOS proposed budget as early as possible - ideally March.
- Working together they try to determine budget hurdles and possible resolutions.
- Residents can submit new bylaws called ”citizens petition”, or the town can, as well as budget requests as part of that Town Meeting Warrant Process, when the BOS “open the warrant and before it closes”.
- A budget proposal is finalized and presented by the BOS as a Town Warrant for the Annual Town Meeting. This is presented at Town Meeting usually in June.
- The voters decide up or down on proposals. Some budget items require more votes than others. To pull from Stabilzation Funds, it requires 2/3 of voters to vote in favor. Other things might be a simple majority.
- The Town Moderator is expected to maintain decorum and ensure the Town Meeting is run according to Robert’s Rules of Order. Motions and amendments can be made from the floor, including moving the question.
- The Finance Committee, Board of Selectmen Town Clerk, Moderator are responsible for the meeting while departments heads, the Accountant, Treasurer, boards and committees are usually on hand to answer questions.
- Challenges of budgeting involves not having enough money to cover expenses. In the budget process, a plan might be to pull “free cash” or money from “stabilization funds“ our savings accounts to cover yearly operational needs. This is not how it should be year to year. We should have sufficient revenue to cover our costs. If we do not and have no other options, we must decide to cut services or the BOS can propose a 2 1/2 override. Additionally, there are certain things that can be temporarily borrowed and paid through taxes until paid off. For example a Fire Truck or new school roof or a new Town Hall.
This is all stuff I learned over the the two years by my own research, attending webinars and in person conferences and simply being a part of it… Despite living in Oakham for 20 years, I really never really understood how it all worked until 2023. There is still so much to better understand. I hope this helps you. Another area not addressed is how the School Budget is set. Every year, I hear misinformed voters making statements on this. This is a bad state formula that needs to be changed. I may provide some more info on that at another time.
An informed voter is best able to ensure our rural Oakham can remain that way! Otherwise, we might be left in the dark and confused on how things work and get stuck holding the bill or something else we don’t like later on. If I have made any errors, it is inadvertent and will be happy to correct.