Burlington’s May Town Meeting is fast approaching, and while the average (non-Buzz-reading) Burlington resident might not even realize this is a thing, many of your representatives in town government have been hard at work looking at operating budgets, capital needs, and future projections to ensure the town continues to offer the same level of services and amenities community members are used to.
May is known as the Annual Town Meeting here in Burlington, which means this is the meeting at which the town’s operating budget as well as many other large capital decisions are either approved or denied at this meeting.
Each department works within guidelines established by town administration to balance their needs for personnel and other operating funding with the town’s desire to maintain services while also keeping tax increases reasonable for residents. Departments’ proposed budgets go through several different reviews by town administration, a Ways & Means Subcommittee, the Select Board, and the full Ways & Means Committee before being incorporated into the town’s overall proposed budget book. Capital expenses—those expenses over $15,000 that don’t fit into the department’s operating budget—are proposed, discussed, and voted on separately by each of the above bodies and, ultimately, Town Meeting.
Very shortly, Town Meeting materials will be available online for Town Meeting Members and the general public to review. These will include:
- The Warrant – the list of all the Articles Town Meeting will be voting on
- The Warrant Backup – the justification for each Warrant Article, as needed
- The Budget Book – the line-by-line budget for each town department*
These materials have been developed between the months of January and May via dozens of meetings in the service of presenting the best possible warrant to Town Meeting.
Who will be voting on how the town’s money is spent at Burlington’s May Town Meeting? The 126 elected town Meeting Members who represent you. That’s 18 members per precinct, voting on (among many other things) whether or not to:
- approve borrowing for a new police station
- purchase a new vehicle to replace a 20-year-old rusted-out Recreation Department vehicle
- provide additional funding to complete the Pine Glen air conditioning project
- much, much more
The Buzz will let you know when the documents are available for Burlington’s May Town Meeting, and we’ll provide a summary of all Warrant Articles. Once those are available, we encourage you to review them and contact your Town Meeting representatives to advocate for what you feel will be best for the town. Town Meeting this year will begin on May 13 and continue on Wednesday and Monday evenings until the entire Warrant has been voted on.
*The School Department budget, which makes up around half of the town’s budget, is an exception; the School Committee reviews the superintendent’s budget line-by-line, but Town Meeting only approves or denies the final number.
