Town meeting and local government
Where warrant articles, default budgets and “SB 2 towns” come from -- all of which turn up in bills here, unexplained.
New Hampshire does a great deal at town level, and the vocabulary turns up constantly in bills here without being explained.
Town meeting
The traditional form: residents gather on a single day, debate the warrant — the list of articles to be decided — amend articles from the floor, and vote on them there and then. The budget is decided by the people in the room.
"SB 2 towns"
A town that has adopted the official-ballot form votes on warrant articles by ballot on election day instead, after a separate deliberative session where the articles can be amended. It is called SB 2 after the bill that created the option, and many towns and school districts have adopted it.
The trade is participation for reach: a deliberative session is attended by far fewer people than a town meeting, but far more people vote on the result.
The default budget
If a town rejects the budget put to it, spending does not stop. It falls back to the default budget — broadly last year's, adjusted for obligations already contracted. Which is why the argument at a deliberative session is often not about the proposed budget at all but about what the default would be.
This site covers the state legislature only. It holds no town meeting warrants, no local budgets and no municipal votes. This page is here because bills about towns are in the record constantly and the words in them assume you already know all of this.