Nearly 300 residents attend Brattleboro Town Meeting on Saturday at their union high school gym. Photo by Kevin O’Connor/VTDigger BRATTLEBORO — After 65 years of running its Town Meeting as the state’s only session with elected members, this southeastern Vermont hub returned to an open-to- all gathering over the weekend, joining a growing number of communities debating how to juggle spiraling municipal costs and people’s shrinking ability to pay. Nearly 300 residents — twice the 150 representatives who annually served in the past equivalent of a local legislature — approved a $27 million budget on Saturday for the fiscal year starting July 1. “What I hope that we’ve done is create an adequate compromise,” Selectboard Chair Oscar Heller said of the spending proposal. “I know that ‘adequate compromise’ is not much of a battle cry, and yet I do think this budget is an achievement.” Local leaders acknowledged the plan covered many but not all municipal needs, specifically on still-must-wait public works projects such as paving, and came with a 6.3% tax increase that’s double the current rate of inflation. “This is an imperfect document,” Heller said of a budget that, similar to many in other Vermont communities, costs more but covers less. “Those two tensions are the things that we’re wrestling with.” Residents approved the $27 million sum in a voice vote after defeating a call to level-fund spending at the current $24.9 million figure. “If we keep raising taxes,” resident Randy Blodgett said in proposing the lower number, “when do we break people’s backs?” Residents also approved $350,000 to help local human service agencies — a midpoint between the token $1 proposed by the selectboard as a moneysaving measure and the $482,665 recommended by a citizen advisory committee. “I think this is a year for a compromise human service budget,” resident Andy Davis said. “We give to organizations that have a wide range of good work but are not dealing with critical and immediate human needs. I think we need to reset and refocus and rethink how we do this.” Brattleboro scheduled its first open Town Meeting since 1960 after residents voted last month to end their representative model upon complaints it was restrictive. Organizers, unsure what to anticipate for turnout Saturday, set up the Brattleboro Union High School gymnasium with 400 chairs and 400 bleacher seats. “It went well,” Town Clerk Hilary Francis said after. “People were prepared and engaged,” moderator David Gartenstein added. “Democracy at work.” Read the story on VTDigger here: Big crowd at Brattleboro’s return to open Town Meeting backs ‘compromise’ budget. ...read more read less