Barrington voters to talk budget, Town Center: What to know about Town Meeting
BARRINGTON — Residents will gather at the town's middle school this Saturday, Feb. 4 starting at 9 a.m. for the Town Meeting deliberative session. The warrant articles will be reviewed with the opportunity for discussion, questions, and amendments. All of the articles will be decided at the Town Meeting vote on Tuesday, March 14 from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the middle school.
Article 1 is election of officers, including two Select Board seats (sign-ups end Feb. 3).
Articles 2-7 are zoning amendments proposed by the Planning Board (these will be discussed at deliberative session but cannot be amended).
Article 8 is the operating budget. The annual operating budget covers all Town departments including, but not limited to, Fire/EMS, Police, Highway, Recreation, and the Town Offices. The 2023 budget proposal represents an 8% increase and is offset by a non-property tax revenue increase of 7%. At $3, the town’s property tax rate is 15% of the total tax rate. Inflation made the largest impact on the 2023 budget including vehicle fuel, heating fuel, electricity, paving, salt, staffing, and benefit costs. The entire budget binder and each department’s line-item budget is available at www.barrington.nh.gov/2023budget.
Article 9 is the Town Center Tax Increment Financing (TIF) District. A TIF District is an instrument to spur economic development in Barrington's Town Center. Barrington has focused much time and energy on the development of a Town Center since 2003. The vision for this part of Barrington has always included a quaint, safe, walkable Town Center with extensive civic use/open space which support the desire for commercial development. A TIF District invests NEW tax dollars to promote the goals of the district, including civic use public facilities, utilities, and transportation. In 2022, the Planning Board and Select Board had numerous conversations around accomplishing the Town's goals for the Town Center. At the center of those conversations was how to pay for investments in the civic use/open space of the Town Center. Both Boards felt that a TIF District was a great way to reinvest the increased tax value in order to promote additional commercial development. A TIF District does not increase taxes, change zoning, impact properties rights, or decrease funding to the school or county. Additional details including the full Development Program and Frequently Asked Questions are available at www.barrington.nh.gov/tif.
Articles 10-21 include contributions to savings accounts for large future expenditures.
Articles 22 and 23 related to a new three-year Police Union contract which addresses recruitment and retention challenges.
Articles 24 and 25 maximize the State-allowed property tax credits for veterans.
Article 26 supports an effort to bring fiber internet to all of Barrington.
Article 27 updates the Noise Ordinance to reflect 2016 and 2017 amendments.
Articles 28-31 are petitioned warrant articles.
A full voter guide is available online (www.barrington.nh.gov/2023warrant) and printed copies will be available at Deliberative Session. The online voter guide includes explanations of each article and background information to inform voters. The webpage also includes video presentations of the more significant articles (Budget, Town Center TIF District, and Zoning Amendments).
This session is in-person only, a video recording will be available on the Town’s YouTube Channel.
Barrington's school district deliberative session will be held at the middle school on Saturday, Feb. 11 at 9 a.m. More information is available at www.sau74.org.
Send your questions to ask@barrington.nh.gov.
This article originally appeared on Fosters Daily Democrat: Barrington NH 2023 Town Meeting deliberative session: What to know
