Henniker voters breezed through town meeting Saturday, passing an operating budget up 3.5% from last year during a 90-minute session that saw real discussion about only two of 29 warrants.

One topic of discussion was the Tucker Free Library, which had a $242,210 warrant article for operating expenses that passed by show of hands, although not before resident A. J. Heinrich questioned whether money could be saved if the town used the library at New England College, instead.

Joe Petrick, a member of the Tucker Library Board of Trustees, said this idea had been discussed with the college, which is located in the center of town. Using the school library as a public library would require some changes to disability access and other facilities, he said. Just as importantly, a college library might not serve the needs of the general public.

“They’re not the type of books we would need. They tend to be academic,” he said.

Heinrich suggested, perhaps facetiously, that if the warrant passed the word “free” should be dropped from the library name.

Tucker Free Library opened in 1904, a time when many libraries were being built around the country that, unlike existing private libraries, were open to the public without charging a subscription – hence the word “free” in their names.

The library also was topic of a $54,000 warrant article to help pay for an outdoor lift that would allow patrons with mobility issues to make it inside.

The town’s $6.28 million operating budget, up $215,000 from last year, was approved by show of hands after virtually no discussion. It will raise the town rate from $6.93 to an estimated $7.68 per $1,000 of assessed value, costing the owner of a $350,000 house an extra $262 a year.

The longest discussion of the afternoon came on a petitioned warrant article asking Henniker to support the idea of a national carbon fee and dividend program that would charge producers of fossil fuel based on the amount of carbon they produced and pay the money out to many American families. The proposal  was rejected, 32 yes to 51 no.

Supporters argued that the carbon fee was a market-based method to get industries to reduce the greenhouse gases that are causing havoc in the global environment, while opponents painted it as a large government program that would raise prices and be inefficient or, in the opinion of an resident who called climate change a “fantasy,” unnecessary.

Residents also rejected by show of hands a petitioned warrant article to raise the amount of income that people over 65 could make, or amount of assets they could own, and still get the town’s elderly exemption from some property taxes. According to testimony, more than $7.3 million worth of property valuation in town avoids paying some taxes because of the existing exemptions, which remove between $120,000 and $350,000 worth of assessed value from residences before calculating the tax bill, depending on the applicant’s age.

All other warrant articles were approved by show of hands, including $205,000 to buy a new backhoe for the highway department as well as a number of payments into capital reserve funds, which exist to build up money for large expenses such as roadwork or sewage upgrades rather than paying for them all at once.

In Tuesday’s town election, incumbent select board member Tia Hooper was defeated, with 183 votes. Jeff 224 votes, and Neil Martin, 213 votes were elected to the two open seats. Peter Flynn did not seek re-election.

Last week’s voting saw all warrant articles passed by ballot at both the Henniker and John Stark school districts, which operate under the SB2 process.

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