Southborough Town Meeting April 2009
Documents
All the Town Meeting documents you need, and then some.
Warrants
- Town Meeting Warrant
- Special Town Meeting Warrant — This is essentially an addendum to the main warrant that contains just a few articles
Budget docs
- Summary of FY2010 department budgets – A high-level budget overview
- Local and regional school budgets
- Other budgets (Assabet, Norfolk, Algonquin assessments)
- Detailed budget files — From the Advisory Committee website, more budget files than you can shake a stick at
Other docs
- Advisory Committee report to Town Meeting
- Town Meeting roles and responsibilities
- Citizen’s Guide to Town Meetings
Frequently asked questions
When is town meeting?
Town Meeting starts on Monday April 13 at 7:00 pm at Trottier Middle School. A quorum of 100 registered voters is required to start the meeting.
Why should I care?
Because you’re a citizen of this town and you want to have a say in how its run. That’s one reason, but here’s one you might find even more compelling: Because you care about how much you pay in property taxes.
Southborough’s property tax rate is determined primarily by what happens at Town Meeting. Simply put, the more stuff voters decide to fund, the higher your property tax gets. On the flip side, if there are services you feel passionate about — the arts, recreation, schools, public safety — Town Meeting is the place to make sure they get the funding they need.
And while the Board of Selectmen and the Advisory Committee get to recommend specific budgets at Town Meeting, only voters get to decide which ones get adopted. That means you have the final say. Town officials don’t set the budget — you do.
What’s this I hear about a fall Town Meeting?
The Board of Selectmen have decided to hold a special town meeting in September to consider big capital items like the aerial ladder truck, the new police station, and Main Street utility undergrounding. So you won’t see any of those items come up in April.
More information
If you’re looking to get up-to-speed on issues likely to come up at Town Meeting, here are some stories to get you started.
About town meeting
- A newbie’s guide to town meeting
- Hot off the presses: The April Town Meeting warrant
- The difference a vote can make
General budget
- Selectmen consider reducing hours for town employees, library
- More cuts to the budget
- Advisory Committee requests reduced budgets for fiscal year 2010
- Property tax rate is highest in nearly a decade
School budget
- No new technology approved for the schools
- Schools to renegotiate health plan with teachers union
- A regional storm is a-brewin’
- Budget cuts mean teachers could be eliminated
Specific town departments and services