I’ve been a resident of Lincoln for most of my life. I believe in democracy and have expressed my opinion at the ballot box, both national and local, whenever an election has been conducted.

I used to attend town meeting, until it became less of a fruitful and informative discussion and more of a foregone conclusion. One after another, issues proposing the use of taxpayer money were never denied, some even amended to higher amounts. I became frustrated and disgusted mainly with the growing school budget as student population fell. Now we are our own district and the budget and taxes have become untenable.

We are very fortunate to have Burnham Hall for town functions, but there is no facility in town that can accommodate all the voters even if they did decide to attend town meeting. The only venue large enough to serve as many voters as possible is the voting booth. As it is, maybe 10% of eligible voters in town attend town meeting and spend multiple millions. The November Lincoln election saw 90% vote providing more of a realistic opinion.

A petition to have the school budget voted by Australian ballot has been signed and will be on this year’s Town Meeting warning. I encourage all my fellow citizens that agree to this idea to attend town meeting in March and please make your opinion known. This must first clear the acclamation process in 2025 in order to be voted by Australian ballot in 2026.

Thank you for your support. See you at town meeting!

Jeremy Perfect

Lincoln