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By DAVID BROOKS

One of the most common debates during town meetings, as well as one of the trickiest, involves deciding what is “a need” and what is “a want” when it comes to government spending.

In Epsom, one resident panics. In Hopkinton, another has sympathy for seniors. In Pembroke, people cringe. In Weare, there’s disappointment for the lack of state funding. And in Henniker there’s appreciation that the school and select boards tried to balance budgets as best they could.

By MICHAELA TOWFIGHI

Karen Yeaton is happy to talk about Education Freedom Accounts. Just not on the floor at Town Meeting. 

By MICHAELA TOWFIGHI

Martha Bodnarik isn’t willing to budge on certain things. She keeps her house in Warner warm even if her heating bill is high. But when she’s in the grocery store, she tried to cut costs anywhere she can.

By DAVID BROOKS

Weare voters rejected the operating budgets for both the town and the school district Tuesday and turned a thumbs down on a number of spending proposals.

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By DAVID BROOKS

One incumbent and two newcomers are running for a pair of seats with three-year terms on the Henniker School Board. All three candidates support the idea of the state’s Education Freedom Account vouchers to provide more choice for parents but say the current arrangement takes too much money from public education, making it more difficult for local districts to provide mandated services.

By MICHAELA TOWFIGHI

Three residents are vying for two seats on the Pembroke select board. Incumbents Bryan Christiansen and Sandy Goulet are both seeking re-election with Peter Gagyi, who served on the board last year, running again.

By MICHAELA TOWFIGHI

In the five years since Derek Narducci has lived in Warner, he’s watched his tax bill increase by 40 percent.

By JONATHAN VAN FLEET

The race for a seat on the Salisbury Board of Selectmen includes two longtime town residents in the small town of 1,400 people and a man neither of them had ever heard of before.

Two people are running for the seat on the Weare select board being vacated by David Pratte, who chose not to run for re-election.

By DAVID BROOKS

Two newcomers are vying for a one-year seat on the Weare School Board, finishing the term of William Politt, who is stepping down. It is the only contested race on the ballot.

By DAVID BROOKS

The Henniker town budget would increase 3.5% under a proposal that will go before residents at town meeting.

By ALEXANDER RAPP

Mary Paradise has lived in Pittsfield for 37 years and understands the heavy strain of rising taxes on town residents.

By DAVID BROOKS

In what might be the region’s only case of its kind during this season of school budget presentations, the John Stark School District budget says it is facing a large decrease in the two items that usually drive cost increases: salaries and benefits.

By DAVID BROOKS

Deliberative sessions are all about local control but it was state actions and their effect on property taxes that dominated much of Wednesday’s discussion for voters in the Weare School District.

By RACHEL WACHMAN

The cost of special education and the role of state assistance for schools took center stage at Epsom School District deliberative session Tuesday during one of the town’s most widely attended meetings in years, which drew more than 250 people to the Epsom Central School.

By DAVID BROOKS

These might be tumultuous political times but you wouldn’t know it from the Henniker School District’s annual deliberative session.

By REBECA PEREIRA

In 2022, after more than two decades behind the moderator’s podium, Dennis Fowler retired from overseeing Allenstown’s deliberative sessions. As he approached the microphone on Saturday, he was free to slough off the obligatory cloak of impartiality that came with the position.

By JONATHAN VAN FLEET

Keith Cota wanted to say thank you, but he still had concerns.

By JONATHAN VAN FLEET

After a steep increase in school taxes due to special education and transportation costs last year, Epsom is facing a steeper hike this year.