Boxborough Does Town Meeting Right

The Beacon (5/17/12) covered Boxborough's Annual Town Meeting extensively in this week's issue. While I haven't attended a Boxborough Town Meeting, it sounds like a well-run, well-attended event with a lot of voter participation, a stark contrast to Acton's Town Meeting.

As I have written extensively before, state law makes it clear that budgets are to be presented by a town's Finance Committee. In Boxborough, their FinCom sets the spending priorities and presents the budget, and if the Selectmen (or any other group) wish to change the recommendations, they can do so by offering an amendment.

This procedure makes a lot of sense if you want to control costs. The group that looks out for the long-term finances of the town can prioritize spending with those goals in mind....

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