Meals Tax Echo To Appear on Tuesday's Ballot

In addition to , and town meeting members, Reading’s voters Tuesday will be able to cast their vote on two initiatives.

The first, if passed, would eliminate the Landbank Committee, which Reading’s leadership says is no longer needed because its function has been absorbed by the town’s professional staff.

The second would create standardized forms for petitioners seeking signatures to trigger referendum elections.

The warrant article that enabled the initiative at November’s subsequent Town Meeting when town council and Selectman Ben Tafoya used signature sheets collected by Town Meeting member and Selectman Candidate Kara Fratto as support for the plan.

Tafoya showed Town Meeting copies of signature sheets that Fratto collected to trigger last year’s referendum vote to repeal the meals tax approved by town meeting. The sheets included crossed-out and penned-in words, and Tafoya said that those edits differed from copy to copy, creating several different versions of the petition. 

Tomorrow’s question two would require that all petition sheets bear identical language, and would give the town authority to reject petitions with penned-in modifications.

Fratto opposed the initiative, saying that she worried that entire sheets of signatures could be disqualified due to a drop of rain or a signatory testing a pen. She also said she worried that the board of registrars could use its authority to block a vote on a technicality.

Town Clerk Laura Gemme noted that, despite the vagueness of the language, the town would only address specific kinds of extraneous markings.

"It refers to anything being crossed out in the language of the petition," Gemme said.

Despite Fratto’s objection, the article passed by a 97-34 vote.

Both questions will appear on the backside of the town's ballots. So, remember to turn your ballot over before turning it in.