Upon researching the SB 2 form of government versus the traditional town meeting, this is what I discovered:
■SB 2 ballot voting does not guarantee more participation among active voting residents of Hopkinton.
■According to the N.H. Municipal Association, an average of only 2.4% of voters in SB 2 towns attend the first deliberative sessions whereas in Hopkinton we’ve had a voter attendance of 5.4% to 11.4% at our annual town meetings over the past three years.
■SB 2 towns average 25.5% attendance at the ballots and for the past three years Hopkinton ballot voting was 16% to 27%.
■Town officials can request a special meeting after a default budget has been passed to make adjustments for legally obligated expenditures. Often times the default budget is actually higher than the proposed budget. Default budgets do not guarantee lower taxes.
■SB 2 relies on the judgment of a handful of people who attended the deliberative session that ultimately set the budget. At the last three annual town meetings each warrant article had a healthy debate among 250 to 550 people who were in attendance.
■According to data from the Department of Revenue Administration, 45% of SB 2 towns have made multiple attempts to reverse their decision and return to the traditional form of town meetings. It is very difficult to overturn this decision due to the two-thirds majority requirement. If this was an effective form of a budgeting process, then why are so many towns regretting their decisions?
LOUISE CARR
Contoocook