From the Advisory Committee handbook, also known as the Association of Town Finance Committee Handbook.

The Budget Process An effective budget process begins with a clear understanding of who will be responsible for the essential budget activities:

• issuing budget guidelines.

• preparing budget requests;

• assembling requests into a comprehensive budget for review; and

• reviewing, analyzing, and recommending a budget to town meeting.

Statutory responsibilities, town bylaws, and the town’s organizational structure dictate, or at least influence, who is responsible for each of these activities. In general, the executive branch of town government should be responsible for the first three budget development activities. The finance committee should focus on the last of these four activities.

. Unless required by town charter or bylaws, however, it is not advisable for the finance committee to take on the budget-making role directly. Such a role usurps some of the powers and responsibilities of elected officials and their appointees and compromises the committee’s primary statutory role as objective advisor to town meeting. In addition, this process can be a daunting task for a volunteer committee, particularly without the help of a professional in the town’s administration, such as the town accountant.

Budget Formats There is a common misconception that the Commonwealth prescribes a mandatory budget format for towns. There is no such requirement; therefore, no two town budget documents are alike. The Division of Local Services of the Department of Revenue, however, has determined that towns may rely for guidance upon M.G.L. Ch. 44 s 32, which sets forth the budget format for cities

 Voice vote at town meeting, moderator declares vote passed or failed, you have doubts. If you can get 6 other people to stand with you, 7 can challenge the moderator. Stand and state, I doubt it and the moderator will be forced to have a hand count. Know your power when you go to town meeting.

In 2022, you will get 4 tax bills and they generally raise the amount of money needed to pay for what you voted to do at town meeting. Pay for the operation of the schools, pay for the police, fire, ambulance, get roads plowed / salted, or not, pay cost of employees whose job it is to create your tax bills, collect your money, record or account for how it is spent, etc.

Oh, you did not attend town meeting, not to worry, those who did had no problem spending your money for you. Want a say, attend town meeting, where you all can vote to tell selectmen to take their budget back to the office and reduce it, for the good of the town, as in us, the residents. You attend town meeting, you have that power.

 MassLive January 14, 2022;

Northampton officials ultimately chose not to vote on a vaccine mandate for bars, restaurants and other indoor businesses Thursday night.

Some members of the city’s Board of Health questioned whether there was thorough data to show that a vaccine requirement would curb the transmission of COVID-19 in the indoor spaces. The measure also would have been enforced by individual workers, a burden that would have weighed heavily on already struggling employees, some health board members said.

There is still limited data to show that COVID is commonly spread in bars or restaurants, rather than through households or social gatherings, according to Public Health Director Merridith O’Leary.

“We always make policies that are data driven and evidence based,” she said. “And I would hate for us to make a policy that would have such a huge negative unintended consequence.”

Board member Suzanne Smith, a physician who spent 22 years as an infectious diseases and public health expert with the Centers for Disease Control, also questioned how effective the policy would be on Northampton’s population.

“What proportion of the population at this point in time is going to restaurants and bars and fitness centers?” she asked. “It’s certainly not a majority. So if you’re imposing these mandates on a small sector like that, what’s the overall impact in the population?”

Apparently, this BOH does not just blindly follow state lead, good for them. If a doctor is questioning that kind of policy, it should not be wrong for me to do the same.