Often the largest item on any town or school district’s warrant is the budget. It covers costs for all town departments, including the emergency services like police, fire and ambulance, as well as maintaining town infrastructure.
How towns and school districts go about determining that bottom line can vary, based on the system individual towns have adopted. In the Monadnock region, there are three main ways towns determine their operating budget: through the elected select board or school board, through the Select Board or School Board with assistance from an appointed advisory committee or with an elected budget committee.
Whatever system is in place, often the same process is used – town department heads craft individual proposals for their department budgets, which go through a review process with the select board, budget committee or both to review cost increases or decreases and their justifications. Then, a final number is reached and compiled into the total budget.
But what system towns work under does matter, particularly for those towns who have adopted the state law to have an elected committee, which carries with it statutory requirements.
If a town or district has an official budget committee, the process is outlined by state law, specifically RSA 32:14. Municipalities and school districts can only function under an elected committee by voting to adopt one by a majority vote at a Town Meeting. Once in place, the committee is in place in perpetuity, unless a new vote is taken to abolish it.
Currently, towns in the Monadnock region with elected committees include Dublin, Jaffrey, Lyndeborough, Peterborough and Wilton. Among school districts, the Wilton-Lyndeborough Cooperative School District elects its budget committee members.
In those towns, the budget committee, rather than the select board or other governing body, is elected as an official board, and holds public meetings to prepare the budget, including running the mandated budget hearing.
Whether a town has an in-person Town Meeting or resolves all of its warrant items at the ballot box under the SB2 system, voters have the opportunity to amend items on the warrant, including the budget. But when a town has an elected budget committee, the power to amend the budget isn’t entirely ungoverned.
The total amount appropriated by the Town Meeting, including amounts appropriated in separate warrant article, cannot exceed the total recommended by the budget committee by more than 10 percent, by state law.
Towns are not required to have an elected budget committee, but some still seek additional perspectives beyond the governing body when it comes to crafting the budget, and for those towns, an appointed committee often is used to help with the process.
Sometimes called budget advisory committees or finance or financial advisory committees, these boards are made up of community volunteers who are appointed by the select board. in practice, they may function similarly to an elected budget committee, and may participate in the budget hearing, but ultimately, any final decisions are made by the governing body, who can overrule any or all of the decisions made by the advisory committee. An advisory committee doesn’t have any official duties governed by the law.
This is the most-common system currently among Monadnock region towns and school districts, who either have a separately appointed committee or a sub-committee who make recommendations to the governing board. Hancock, Bennington, Francestown, Greenfield, New Ipswich, Rindge and Temple all have advisory committees, as well as the school districts of Mascenic Regional, Contoocook Valley Regional and Jaffrey-Rindge Cooperative.
Those communities that don’t have an elected budget committee are also not bound by the 10 percent increase cap, so potentially, voters can make any amendments they wish.
Those without any budget committees tend to be smaller, and craft the budget with solely the members of the governing body or staff members, including Greenville, Mason, Mason School District, Sharon and Antrim.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 603-924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.