For the full wording of the Article, see this link: Link to the Warrant as Amended following Deliberative Session
What it Means: The petitioners are seeking to put each Charitable organization that may appear on any future warrants as their own Article, presumably so the voters can decide independently if they want to support that group or not. They are further trying to disallow any charity not based physically in Hampton from being considered for this donation from taxpayers. They seem to indicate that the Town should be responsible for auditing the books of each charity.
Those in Favor: No one at Deliberative Session spoke in favor of this Article. However, one speaker indicated that the folks who put this forward were simply seeking fiscal responsibility, and did not mean to suggest any ill will towards the charities listed.
Those Opposed Say: Several speakers referred to the fact that the Warrant Article with the Social Services Agencies request is on our ballots each year and always receives a very high rate of voter approval. If we were to add the Social Services requests to the Warrant individually, we would be adding 20 Articles – this year, that would have increased the number of articles by more than half. That’s how Hampton previously posed this funding question, but subsequently, the charitable requests were combined into one question for brevity’s sake. Currently, the only time an agency is presented on its own is when it is new to the list. According to Legal Counsel, the 2025 Town vote cannot bind the 2026 Town vote (or subsequent years).
Fiscal impact: There is no direct tax impact, but if the list of agencies changes based on the requirement of physical presence in Hampton, the dollar amount requested might shrink in the future (if this Article passes).