Comments on: Giving you more choice at town meeting – a good thing?

By: Shubu Mukherjee

Shubu Mukherjee — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 15:35:16 +0000

John,

I had assumed that the Selectmen would already propose something like that. But may be not …

-Shubu

By: John Butler

John Butler — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 03:50:24 +0000

Creating real choices means that one of the choices would be to maintain service levels, even if that means that the result is to increase taxes, as Town Meeting has done many times in the past. The idea is that views you may disagree with, as well as your own, be available to voters.

By: Jim

Jim — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 02:58:02 +0000

I have not attended Town Meeting since moving to Southborough but plan on attending this year. I believe the approach you laid out, John, allows more input from the residents than it appears we have had in the past. I agree that more options will raise the complexity level of the budget discussions, and likely the level of confusion as well. That being said, I feel we and our fellow residents need to take the time to understand the options available to us if we hope to help shape the direction of our community. I think it is a great idea and am looking forward to Town Meeting!

Jim

By: Shubu Mukherjee

Shubu Mukherjee — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 18:53:46 +0000

Neil,

All the alternative budgets can propose a zero increase or decrease. That will ensure zero budget increase. JohnB does raise an excellent point though. How does one express one’s opinion in the Town Meeting? You tried this last year and didn’t quite work, right? Since it was an all or nothing deal.

But I agree with you that to avoid confusion, we need only a handful, maybe two besides the one proposed by Selectmen.

-Shubu

By: Neil Rossen

Neil Rossen — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 18:31:32 +0000

I think that multiple budgets will lead to confusion and dilute the “no tax increase” message. Are folks really supposed to vote on a variety of budgets on how many days? Is everyone expected to study multiple budgets? Can this truly be realistic?

By: Shubu Mukherjee

Shubu Mukherjee — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 18:22:35 +0000

John,

I support multiple budgets. Excellent idea.

-Shubu

By: John Boiardi

John Boiardi — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 18:09:50 +0000

John,

You make a persuasive case. I will support the effort to provide town meeting members fiscal alternatives.

The other John

By: Sachin Dhamdhere

Sachin Dhamdhere — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 17:17:21 +0000

I believe giving as many options to voters as possible is a good thing – how the users consume the data is upto them.

This will be my first year (if I’ve not already missed!) to experience the town meeting & budgetary process – looking forward it.