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03/17/2023 10:43 AMThe Board of Selectman (BOS) has made the decision to once again conduct the town budget vote by town meeting rather than a referendum. The date for the budget vote has not been set yet.
At a BOS meeting on March 14 the board unanimously voted to once again conduct the approval of the upcoming budget at a town meeting rather than at a referendum.
Seven years ago, the BOS made the decision to stop conducting the annual budget approval process via a referendum and instead use a town meeting format. The reason cited at the time by then-First Selectman Noel Bishop was the declining referendum turnout. While budget votes in Westbrook’s neighboring town of Clinton have been attention-grabbing affairs over the previous decade, the same enthusiasm never crossed the town line to Westbrook. In 2015, only 245 voters came out to vote in the 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. referendum, which led the town to decide to do the town meeting form of vote.
Town meetings take much less time both to conduct and to set up than an all-day referendum, though referenda traditionally offer a 14-hour window for voters to participate while a town meeting requires participation at a specific time.
However, the pandemic changed things. In 2020, with uncertainty about how to handle the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic swirling, an executive order gave towns the ability to pass the budgets on their own after a public hearing was held.
In 2021, the vote returned and the town held a referendum again. As First Selectman John Hall explained to the Harbor News, “People weren’t really assembling due to COVID so rather than have people in one room, we had a referendum.”
Fewer than 100 people cast a vote in that year’s referendum and the town returned to a town meeting vote in 2022.
One of the benefits of doing a town meeting vote is that the town can publish a citizen’s voting guide for the budget.
The citizen’s guide is intended to inform voters before they vote about the budget and the state of the town’s finances. State guidance directs that the town remain neutral in its presentation of the budget details in any summary document presented to the voters.
At press time the proposed budget is still being built.
According to a budget calendar, the Board of Finance will forward the proposed budget to a public hearing on March 28.
On April 19, there will be a public hearing over the proposed budget and on May 8, voters will get their chance to approve or deny the proposed budget at the town meeting.