This week we learned that, in the opinion of town officials, no Town Meeting vote is needed to approve spending cuts for the current fiscal year. It almost seems like a question of semantics: a bulletin issued by the Department of Revenue states that any proposed reductions in the annual budget must be presented to voters at a special town meeting held before or within an annual town meeting. Both the town administrator and chairman of the Finance Committee say that what the town is dealing with for fiscal 2009 are not budget cuts, but spending cuts, and that because department heads agreed to the changes no town vote is necessary.

But call it budget or call it spending—doesn’t it amount to the same thing—allocating taxpayer money? Shouldn’t taxpayers have a say in that?