They trickled into Town Hall, chatted with neighbors and greeted friends as they took their seats for the annual town meeting. Within an hour, Salisbury had approved its budget for the coming year and passed all seventeen warrant articles, each of which received unanimous support by voice vote with little discussion – except for the the final article concerning the state’s Education Freedom Account program.

The article in question, brought to the town by resident Lorna Carlisle, states that taxpayers have a right to know where their money is going and how it’s being spent in regards to tax dollars diverted to religious or private education. The article says that the residents of Salisbury want more accountability measures in place for these vouchers and that they call on their state elected officials to maintain their duty to fiscal responsibility.

Similar articles have shown up in other towns across the state, including in Pembroke and Weare.

“To me this is unnecessary spending,” Carlisle said. “I just feel like they’ve already got vouchers to 350% of the poverty line. I say we don’t need to expand them anymore and the legislature should listen to us.” 

The article calls for the town’s Board of Selectmen to submit, in writing, to the governor and Salisbury’s state representatives a record of the town’s decision within 30 days of town meeting.

“Each member of Salisbury, if they agree to this, could write their own personal letter to the state legislature or the governor or whatever,” said resident Jeff Planter. “What this petition is asking to be done is that the town of Salisbury, as a group, make a statement that we as citizens of the town of Salisbury want to restrict further expansion of this voucher program and we’re speaking as a group as opposed to individuals.”

The town passed the warrant article after a few minutes of discussion, with a few members of the crowd voting no.

Beyond education freedom accounts, every other article passed with little discussion. With the budget growing by about 1%, Salisbury’s largest cost increases include $150,000 for street paving and $25,000 for hauling waste away from the transfer station.

“Even though it might feel like we plow through these and we pass them all, it’s more indicative of a lot of effort going into this to get to this point,” said town moderator David Hostetler. “I want to thank everybody on the budget committee and everyone else involved. I also want to thank everyone that voted today.”

 

Rachel Wachman can be reached at rwachman@cmonitor.com