Forum, July 10: Proposed Hanover budget balances need for services with needs of taxpayers
Published: 7/9/2021 9:59:56 PM
Modified: 7/9/2021 10:00:06 PM
Proposed Hanover budget balances need for services with needs of taxpayers
At the business portion of Hanover’s Town Meeting on Tuesday, voters will face a bevy of appropriations-related warrant articles, $30.6 million in total, for fiscal year 2022. After revenues, the levy to taxpayers is $14.1 million. Tax rates, incorporating the Fire Fund, would increase just under 3% (17 cents on a base of $5.92 per assessed value of $1,000 prior to the increase). The Hanover Finance Committee voted unanimously on March 8 to support the town budget.
In setting the budget, the town faced significant, mostly externally driven, revenue and cost pressures: Multiple revenue streams were impacted by COVID-19 totaling more than $450,000 an amount equal to 19 cents on the tax rate; cost drivers included a nearly $200,000 increase in required
Published: 7/8/2021 9:59:56 PM
Modified: 7/8/2021 10:00:05 PM
Vote ‘yes’ to keep town manager plan in Hanover
During all-day voting at Hanover’s upcoming annual Town Meeting on Tuesday, voters are asked through a petitioned warrant article (No. 5): “Do you favor the continuation of the town manager plan as now in force in this town?” The Hanover Finance Committee, at a meeting on June 14, unanimously answered in the affirmative and urges Hanover voters to do likewise.
Unsaid in the article itself, the alternative is a town administrator, typically with more limited authority, and putting more responsibility with the Selectboard. In the opinion of the Finance Committee, governance and fiscal oversight are improved with a clean separation of executive and oversight duties, akin to the separation of the CEO and board chair roles in a corporate setting.