A taxpayer asks for some public records from town of Templeton, electronic at that.

He gets a response from the town administrator, paraphrasing, send me $105.18 and you can have those.

Residents provide the money to buy paper, printer ink, pay for copiers and computers, pay the employees and when you ask for some records, you get a bill like that. First thing that comes to mind is we do not keep good records in town hall. Second thing comes to mind is town does not want to give the public it's records, do this by putting up a financial block to it. Perhaps this is another way of paying for the budget, another fee or tax. Yes, I know the law states the town can do this, but the secretary of state recommends give records for no charge. It is called service to the public, transparency, accountability and all that. Payback is a bitch and budget and financial transfers are the way to pay em back, as in deny them at town meeting.

 Build Back Better, in Templeton, no really!

 Put less money or none at all into general stabilization fund, because we don't need to do that anyone, we have reached our goal. (now we can start taking money out of it)

Give the town administrator more money to play with, say 67.5% of free cash rather than 50 or 60%.

Why do this? Because department heads are crying there is not enough money for us to spend.

Notice few if any department heads push hard for new or repaired sidewalks, better drainage (have you been down North Main Street lately/) anyone see a plan or push from a department head to improve the town common? Why is it always town employees first and town residents second?

Remember, just because the town administrator or board of selectmen put something in front of town meeting does not mean you have to do it. You can put more money where you want it, such as your general stabilization fund, because we are told and it is stated, more money in general stabilization fund = a better bond rating which lowers the cost for the town to borrow money. Perhaps town management now wants to follow the joe biden plan, bad or lower bond rating so it will cost us less.