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Committee adopts slide‑based budget overview (MS‑7/37) and plans narrative packet for voters
Summary
Town staff presented an MS‑7/37 slide package summarizing the proposed 2026 budget by fund and function; the committee endorsed a streamlined slide presentation plus a narrative packet and asked staff to circulate materials for printing ahead of the deliberative session.
Jim (staff member) walked the committee through a slide package that compiles the full budget by fund and highlights differences between the 2025 approved, 2025 voted down, 2026 default and 2026 proposed figures.
"This outlines the whole budget by fund and gives you a graphic representation," Jim said as he described the MS‑7/37 slides and the function‑by‑function breakdown (general government, public safety, streets and highways, sanitation, health and welfare, culture and recreation and debt service). He told members he could prepare both a slide packet and a narrative packet with departmental breakdowns that would be provided to voters.
Members agreed the slide approach should be paired with a narrative handout that explains increases and decreases at a level voters can use; one member urged the package include the tax‑rate context and DRA comparative ranking. The committee discussed giving each department a short narrative in the packet so citizens who want more detail can read it, while the slide presenter focuses on high‑level changes.
The committee asked staff to circulate materials to members electronically by the 26th so printing could begin, and to include traditional slides such as tax‑rate impact and enterprise fund slides as standalone elements.
