Last spring, voters chose to leave the traditional form of Town Meeting and School District Meeting behind, deciding to adopt the official ballot law, commonly referred to as SB-2, for both town and school governance.

The deliberative session of School District Meeting takes place Monday, Feb. 2, 7 p.m., at Auburn Village School, a change from its traditional Friday night. The deliberative session of Town Meeting takes place Saturday, Feb. 7, at 1 p.m., at Auburn Village School.

Both are a month earlier than people are used to. Under the official ballot law, the deliberative session must take place earlier so people can take the information under consideration in preparation for the vote in March, this year on March 10.

Town warrants
On the town warrant, there are three zoning warrants, which will not be discussed or changed at the deliberative session.

There are also five warrant articles. Participants in the deliberative session may change the wording and dollar amounts presented, but not the intent of the article.

Article 5 asks for $187,860 for road and drainage system improvements at the intersection of Wilson Crossing Road and Hunting Road. Of that, $140,895 is expected to come from grants or state aid, so only $46,965 is to come from taxation.

Article 6, asks for $100,000 to continue wastewater planning efforts for a connection between the Dartmouth Drive/Wellington Business Park and the city of Manchester’s system on By-pass 28. This should not affect the tax rate, as $40,000 will come from grants and $60,000 from surplus.

Article 7 asks for $7,000 to purchase a second Accuvote machine.

Article 8 asks for $175,000 to be placed into the Town Buildings Rehabilitation Capital Reserve Fund. This will not affect the tax rate, as this money is to come from surplus.

Article 9 asks for $4,339,440 for the town’s operating budget. Under the official ballot law, this figure can be amended at the deliberative session, but once the figure is approved, that is what the town will vote for or against in March. If voters say no to the proposed operating budget, the town will automatically be put on a default budget, which is the same as last year with certain adjustments for items like previously-agreed upon contract increases. The default budget would be $23,307 lower, at $4,316,133.

School warrants
There are three warrant articles to be discussed by voters at the deliberative session of School District Meeting.

Voters will be asked to raise $10,744,514.74 as an operating budget for Auburn Village School. Should that article be defeated, the default budget would be set at $10,876,762, higher than the proposed budget by $132,247.26.

The other two articles ask for $50,000 to be taken from surplus and put into the Special Education Expendable Trust Fund and $31,000 to be taken from surplus and put in the School Construction Expendable Trust Fund. Neither would affect the tax rate.