Last year, the deliberative session of the Pittsfield Town Meeting lasted about 30 minutes. With less than two dozen residents, the session breezed through 30 articles.

Pittsfield Select Board Chairman Carl Anderson figures that was probably because Pittsfield is an SB2 town, which allows town meeting to be split into two parts, with all matters settled at the ballot box on election day. After the deliberative session last year, Anderson said the current system has led to a decrease in attendance, and he worried that voters were making up their minds after reading the ballot for the first time instead of making informed decisions and voting after hearing both sides of the argument, which happens at a traditional meeting where residents come together to deliberate and vote on the same day, face to face.

It’s for that reason the select board unanimously recommended returning to the traditional town meeting format and rescinding the SB2 format on this year’s warrant – which will still have to be approved by a three-fifths majority vote on election day, according to select board vice chair Carole Richardson.

“It hasn’t kept budgets down. People go in March voting and just go in and vote for things, but they really don’t know what they’re voting for,” Richardson said. “All five of us, we like the town meetings, because we can hear the discussion, we can get the questions from the people, and people understand more if they want to vote no at the town meeting, fine, but I just think it’s a lack of understanding. This year, the selectmen decided not to put like 20 warrant articles for equipment.”

The town is seeking an operational budget of $5.52 million. The default budget is slightly higher at $5.72 million.

The tax rate would be $8.75 per thousand dollars of assessed value, compared to $9.04 last year, which amounts to $87 less per year for a house worth $300,000.

The difference between last year’s approved budget and this year’s is due mostly to rising healthcare costs and the deal made with the two labor unions in town, according to Richardson. She said they have tried to keep the budget down, as the total tax rate for Pittsfield increased by five dollars per thousand between 2023 and 2024, so lowering the municipal tax rate was a priority.

Richardson said the board kept many of those aforementioned articles off this year’s warrant because they hope that in a traditional town format, they will be able to explain the need for investing in equipment funds, the capital improvement fund and other future needs the town may have.

Other items on this year’s town and school warrants include: increasing elderly property tax exemption amounts; raising $29,626 for an increase in compensation for the town clerk modeled after the agreed increase with AFT-NH Local 6214 Union for employees with the same years of service and department head designation; and $66,000 for a new police cruiser from police department funds and a donation from the Pittsfield Police Association.

The proposed operating budget for the school district is lower than the default budget at $11.72 million. Should the proposed budget be defeated at the ballots, the default budget would be $12.42 million. The budget committee recommends the proposed budget, 10-4, however, no school board members recommend it.

Last year’s voter-approved school district budget was $10.95 million, and the discrepancy between that figure and this year’s default is mainly due to increases in healthcare costs and salaries. Specifically, the differences are due to increasing instructional, support services, and transportation costs.

There are only a few items on the school district warrant for 2025-26, and the only one with a tax impact is for an increase in salaries and benefits at current staffing levels through an agreed-upon one-year collective bargaining agreement between the school board and the Education Association of Pittsfield.

The town meeting will be held on Saturday at 10 a.m. at the Pittsfield Middle High School gym. There will be an additional public hearing on the proposed 2025 warrant article to rescind SB2 and switch back to a traditional town meeting format on Tuesday, February 11.

The school meeting is scheduled for Feb. 6 at 7 p.m. at the PMHS cafeteria. The polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on town election day, March 11.

Alexander Rapp can be reached at arapp@cmonitor.com.