LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND TAXATION 17 



BUDGETING 



Authority to make appropriations for meeting town expenditures 

 is vested in a majority vote of the voters assembled in town meeting. 

 The items for which towns have power to appropriate money are 

 stated in the public laws-'* and include "necessary charges arising 

 within the town." It is essential that some means be provided for 

 submitting a list of appropriations to the voters before town meet- 

 ing. The procedure to accomplish this is regulated by the statutes 

 (aside from the Alunicipal Budget Act of 1935, to be discussed sub- 

 sequently) : 



Budget. Immediately upon the close of the fiscal year the budget 

 committee in towns where such committees exist, otherwise the 

 selectmen, shall prepare a budget on blanks prescribed by the tax 

 commission. Such budget shall be posted with the town warrant 

 and shall be printed in the town report at least one week before the 

 date of the town meeting. 25 



Accordingly, the selectmen post a copy of the proposed budget with 

 the town warrant and distribute copies of the town report among the 

 voters, either at the town meeting or at their homes prior to the town 

 meetings. 



Of the rural towns not now operating under the Municipal 

 Budget Act a majority have adopted the policy of delegating the 

 preparation of the budget to a committee rather than to the select- 

 men. This committee is called by various names, such as budget, 

 finance, appropriations, and ways and means. A few of these com- 

 mittees are either appointed by the selectmen or elected by the voters, 

 but more frequently they are appointed by the moderator. In one 

 town the selectmen and school board make up the budget commit- 

 tee, and in another the selectmen hold a budget meeting with local 

 business men. At any rate, recognition of the necessity for a more 

 thorough study of the budget before submitting it to popular vote 

 is a matter of long standing. 



During its 1935 session the state legislature passed the "Municipal 

 Budget Act" which required all towns at their next annual meeting 

 (March, 1935) to vote ". . . on -the following article to be inserted 

 in the warrant : To see if the town will vote to adopt the provisions 

 of the Municipal Budget Act."-^ The act further provided for the 

 subsequent insertion of such a proposition in the warrant, on petition 

 of ten legal voters, in those towns which originally failed to adopt it. 

 According to the results of a recent questionnaire distributed by the 

 State Tax Commission, there are now 59 towns operating under the 

 act. Of the 116 rural towns surveyed for this project, 45 adopted it 

 and five later rescinded this action. The reasons for not adopting 

 the act. or for later rescinding it. as stated by selectmen, are either 

 that the town already had a budget committee or that the act merely 



^^ Revised Laws, 1941, Chapter 42, Section 4. 



^^Ibid., Section 80. 



20 Revised Laws, 1941, Chapter 52, Section 1. 



