by Ken Signorello
August 12, 2020
At their August 11th meeting, the Village Trustees voted unanimously (4-0) to put the question of moving approval of their annual budget from a floor vote at their annual meeting to Australian ballot. This will appear on the November 3rd ballot.
Raj Chawla moved that “the Trustees direct staff to work with the Village Attorney to include the necessary language on the November 2020 ballot to ask voters whether or not to move to Australian ballot voting for the Village municipal budget.”
Just a week ago the Town Selectboard considered the very same question. They decided to not take unilateral action, in order to give the Trustees a chance to meet by themselves.
At that Joint Meeting on Aug 3rd, the Selectboard and Trustees expressed concern that removing budget-to-ballot from the merger charter, might make merger less attractive.
Trustees: Put Australian Ballot Budget Question on Nov. Ballot
Trustee Raj Chawla at August 11th Meeting
The Trustees no longer see a problem with putting the budget on a ballot because they expect to put forth a Village-drafted merger charter with the same change. That move will give voters what they’ve been requesting for years either way.
Due to COVID, the Village FY21 Budget was approved by ballot on June 1st of this year after a long tradition of in-person meetings.