Last spring, school district and town government leadership conducted a series of Community Listening Meetings, where residents and businesses gathered to hear an update on the town government’s financial condition and voice their opinions about what levels of government service they desire.
This past summer, the town government’s elected boards and senior management worked together to come up with solutions to the shortfall in financial resources available to provide the desired service levels. At its August 9 meeting, the Board of Selectmen called for a Special Town Meeting on September 12 to discuss proposed Senior Tax Relief and to make a formal presentation on the financial condition of the town government. A week later, the Selectmen at its August 16 meeting called for a special election on October 18 to ask the voters for a $7.5 million override of Proposition 2-1/2. This would be the first such override request in about 13 years.
Tonight the community is invited back to a financial forum at 7:00 pm in the RMHS Performing Arts Center. At this meeting the community will hear presentations from the school and town leadership on the proposed solutions to maintain existing service levels that were requested at the listening sessions, to restore a modest amount of previous budget reductions, and why this proposed override should reasonably be expected to last at least until 2025.
The Selectmen and School Committee urge all residents to plan on attending this important Community Financial Forum and participate in your local government.
