It would be unwise for voters to wake up on a March morning and realize there are key issues to be decided impacting their town about which they know little. With the switch from the traditional town meeting to ballot voting, the opportunity to attend the town meeting and listen to debate before voting has disappeared. In order to hear the debate, voters must attend the deliberative sessions and take the issues seriously from the start. Ballot voting came into being in an attempt to get more people involved in the decision-making process. Where once a handful of people attended a meeting and made far-reaching decisions for the town, now hundreds or thousands, depending on the size of the town, actually cast ballots.
Newspapers work hard to keep voters informed, but there's no substitute for lively debate.
Town and school budgets continue to rise, along with almost all other expenses in society. Those spending plans, and their impact on property tax rates, need to be scrutinized carefully before being passed or rejected. Town officials need to know the feeling of the town's residents before finalizing spending and other plans, so areas of concern can be addressed to everyone's benefit before the fact. And there are issues in most towns far beyond the actual spending of money. Not the least of these is zoning.