Town puts out call for budget advice

By Meghan Foley Sentinel Staff

WINCHESTER — Selectmen have decided to appoint a financial advisory committee after voters opted to dissolve the budget committee earlier this month.
Meanwhile, the budget committee’s former chairman, Brian Moser, said Thursday he questions if residents knew what they were voting on at the March 10 town meeting.

Voters decided, 299-248, against keeping the budget committee, which was established at town meeting in 1935.

The warrant article, which was amended at the deliberative session in February, made no mention of the budget committee. Instead, it asked voters if the town will continue honoring Chapter 32 of state law. The provision allows for communities to establish budget committees.

“I think nobody understood it,” Moser said. “But the way it was written is apparently legal, so there is not a whole lot I can say about it.”

The original warrant article asked voters to “rescind the provisions” of Chapter 32, and included a sentence saying that an affirmative vote would abolish the budget committee.

The committee was tasked with setting the town’s annual operating budget, but with the group disbanded, the responsibility now falls to the selectmen.

Selectmen Chairman Roberta A. Fraser said Thursday the board voted unanimously on March 18 to appoint the five-member financial advisory committee that will function similar to the budget committee.

“It kind of keeps the checks and balances still in place,” she said.

The biggest difference is that the advisory committee won’t have legal standing, she said. Also, she noted residents will be voting on a budget crafted by selectmen, not a committee specifically formed for that task.

Tell us all how that keeps checks and balances in place Roberta, if : #1) the BOS CHOOSES who's on this committee and ..#2) The committee has no legal standing
 

Fraser said she hopes the advisory committee will be in place by June, as the budget meetings start in late summer and culminate with voting the following March.

Anyone interested in serving on the committee is welcome to contact the town hall, she said.

Moser said he hasn’t decided if he will put his name in for the committee. He added he is concerned that

 only the selectmen and school board are empowered to put a budget before voters.

“I think the taxpayers will lose some protection from overspending and bad choices that they would have had with the budget committee,” he said.

It’s too early to say if there will be an article on next year’s warrant to bring back the budget committee, he said, but he believes some interest exists among residents to restore the committee.

Moser said he’ll be interested in what the selectmen’s 2016-17 proposed operating budget looks like, and how well the board does in managing the 2015-16 budget.

“There is no way to guess until they do it,” he said.

Meghan Foley can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1436, or mfoley@keenesentinel.com. Follow her on Twitter @MFoleyKS.