This commentary is by Benjamin Brickner, an attorney and chair of the Pomfret Selectboard. The views expressed are solely those of the author. Vermonters will soon gather in town halls, at polling places and around well-worn tables to shape their future. Some will raise hands from folding ch airs, as Elmore has done for generations. Others will mark ballots on a long Tuesday, as Killington now does. Waterbury will do both on the same day. The formats differ, but the purpose is the same: citizens deciding, together, what comes next. This year, what comes next matters more than usual. As the federal government retreats from long-standing commitments that rural states depend upon — Medicaid cuts that could strip coverage from tens of thousands of Vermonters, reductions at FEMA, the hollowing out of agencies that support everything from education to public health — the consequences don’t stay in Washington. They inevitably trickle down.  And someone has to decide how communities will absorb the impact. Increasingly, that someone is you, sitting in a town hall on the first Tuesday in March. Consider what’s on the ballot this year. In Waterbury, a $4.3 million bond would mitigate flooding — increasingly a burden on local taxpayers.  In Pomfret, voters will weigh funding a town administrator to manage growing demands on municipal government. In Hardwick, voters will consider a local option tax to ease the burden on property owners.  In Lyndon, voters will address a budget shaped by extraordinary spending following recent natural disasters. These aren’t small questions. And many are shaped by forces beyond any town’s control. When the federal government pulls back on health care commitments, Vermont’s costs rise, which drives up insurance premiums for municipal employees and school staff, which drives up property taxes.  When disaster agencies are understaffed, the next washout gets repaired more slowly and at greater local expense. Statewide, education property taxes are projected to increase nearly 12% — not because schools are spending frivolously, but because when costs rise as state and federal aid fall, property taxes must make up the difference. Town Meeting Day was never intended to bear this weight. It evolved to govern roads, one-room schools, and local services: the practical business of small towns. Yet as higher levels of government become less reliable or withdraw altogether, Town Meeting Day has become, almost by default, where the necessary work still gets done. But if the stakes are higher now, there is no one better suited to navigate them, because Town Meeting Day voters are on the front lines of holding our communities together. The decisions on this year’s warnings will impact tax bills, dictate whether aging infrastructure gets upgraded or limps along, and determine what gets funded and what gets deferred. This reality demands more from all of us. Not just showing up — even that is no longer enough — but showing up informed and prepared to engage, honestly and in good faith. Read your town report. Attend an informational hearing. Understand what your town controls and what it doesn’t, and why the budget looks as it does. The selectboard members and school board directors who prepared these warnings and budgets are your neighbors and volunteers, doing difficult work with limited resources under mounting pressure. Vermont’s Town Meeting Day tradition endures not because it is easy. It endures because it works. It puts decisions in the hands of those who are first to live with the consequences, and it does so face-to-face, neighbor-to-neighbor, in rooms where you can’t scroll past the hard questions. This year, the hard questions are harder than usual, but they are yours to answer. Show up — however your town asks you to — and decide what comes next. Read the story on VTDigger here: Benjamin Brickner: The rising stakes of Town Meeting Day. ...read more read less