56 Town meeting Member signatures were collected calling for a town-wide vote on the budget (Article 19 of the warning for Representative Town Meeting). This exceeds the minimum requirement of 50. The Selectboard now has 10 days to set the date for the vote which must be within 15 days thereafter. Thus the first two if not all three of the initial steps will be concluded in April. If the budget is defeated the Selectboard will have to call a Special Representative Town Meeting to present a new budget.
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Ways of Seeing
It’s an interesting development, and can be viewed in different ways.
On one hand, it could be viewed as broadening democracy by allowing for all voters to have a chance to weigh in the Police Fire bond issue. In this case, hurrah!
One could also view this as RTM abdicating it’s primary function, passing the proverbial buck to others. In this case, why have RTM at all? Why not always let all voters weigh in always? Why now?
Think Again, Chris
In my case, I signed because I think the referendum option exists as a check and balance to the Representative Town Meeting structure. But I still favor the budget as it stands. I just also favor true democracy, as befits the Chair of the Democratic Party in this county. That’s in our By-Laws as our purpose. We don’t have true democracy here, we have a flawed form of representative democracy. But how can you see this as RTM abdicating on this issue? It’s merely that it’s controversial enough that it deserves a hearing and a vote by all the voters, not just the Representatives. About a third of us Reps apparently agree, although I, and probably others, voted to approve the budget.