Today is Town Meeting Day in Vermont, the original and traditional town hall that brings residents of communities across the state together to discuss issues, choose local leaders and decide school budgets. Former Republican Governor Jim Douglas has moderated the meeting in Middlebury for 31 years, including the years he served as governor. Now an Executive in Residence at Middlebury College, he explains that the tradition goes back to when the first town in the state was chartered.
“The first town in Vermont was chartered in 1749. It was Bennington and the charter provided that everyone would come together in a town meeting to make decisions that were required in order to conduct the affairs of the town. Well after a while it became onerous to call all the voters together whenever a decision had to be made so they began to select men to run the affairs of the municipality between meetings. Still though, even though there elected officials, Vermonters reserved unto themselves the opportunity to come together on an annual basis to make fundamental decisions such as appropriating funds, adopting a municipal budget, setting the town tax rate and so forth. This tradition has stuck in most towns around Vermont. It’s a tradition that continues in some other places but I don’t think it’s as strong as it is in Vermont.”
Vermont Town Meeting Day is held the first Tuesday in March. A Citizens Guide to Town Meeting is available on the Vermont Secretary of State’s website describing the history, typical proceedings and legal background of the Vermont tradition.
Link to Citizens Guide: https://www.sec.state.vt.us/media/78384/Citizen-Guide-Text-2-.pdf
