It’s almost March – the main month in which Town Meetings take place and the voters decide how their towns will be operating the rest of the year. Every single year, starting about now I get a couple of these “Petition Warrants” to be put on the Town Warrant. The latter usage of “warrant” is the overall guide used by townfolk to decide budgets and other items that will guide the operation of a town in the next coming year. A “petition warrant” is something that one or more citizens in a town place an article onto the Town Warrant by having some number of like-minded people agree to do so. In this case, to get rid of a bunch of eyeballs that vet budget numbers to make sure that no malfeasance, no mal-appropriations, no slush funds, and no double-dealings happen in town.
But there are always those that get upset that they keep getting thwarted from doing EXACTLY those things because Budget Committees are that last bastion between taxpayer monies and the spenders. I know this tactic well – it used to happen all the time in my hamlet (mostly because of pettiness, revenge, and seeking to get rid of obstacles).
And that’s the case here. Along with the Petition Warrant, the email came with this (emphasis mine)
So some town leftists are angry that our Hudson town budget committee is calling out the school bd’s spending and are in a tizzy. Former school bd member Diane Lamothe submitted the “Abolish the budget committee” warrant article. I think they want an “appointment board”. Gee, I wonder why…
This February’s town/school deliberative sessions are going to be entertaining.
Ayup, they don’t want others seeing what special pet projects are to be funded without you knowing about it. My reply was simple
I’ll post this up. Some of the Lefties tried to do this in Gilford a few years ago as well – it was handily defeated.
Make sure that you have folks lined up to speak against this AND make sure to have cameras on anyone speaking FOR this idiocy – I’ll put it up on GraniteGrok.
And thanks to Hudson (NH) former school Board member Diane Lamothe, the good folks of Hudson have to beat this latest effort off with sticks, tar, and pitchforks (emphasis mine):
Fiscal Year 2024
Warrant Article 22Abolish the Hudson Budget Committee (by Petition)
To see if the Town will vote to rescind Budget Committee Section 32:14 of New Hampshire RSA Chapter 32 Municipal Budget Law previously adopted by the Town on March 11, 1941, to abolish the Hudson Budget Committee. Rescinding this subdivision as per RSA 32:14, V. will not prevent the Town from establishing an advisory budget or finance committee(s) as stated in Section 32:24.
Recommended by the Board of Selectmen 3-0
The text is here.
Generally, it is the “governing bodies” that highly dislike getting double-checked and when I’ve looked into situations like this, it generally ends up in dark corners requiring Big Flashlights as things aren’t necessarily what they seem to be. I’ve just found that many people on such boards don’t like any checks on their activities at all.
And being in action since 1941 is a very long time indeed. So what’s changed?
And make no mistake – changing a Budget Committee from being one with “teeth” to being an advisory one means one and only one thing – they want to make said BudComm totally irrelevant and useless.
The Hudson townfolks immediately ought to be thinking “WHY?”. WHY now? WHY at this time? What is going on in town, or the school district, as to WHY this is showing up? What major financial or other operational issue is about to get broomed or “put down”?
