"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and what never will be." Thomas Jefferson

"Nothing could be more irrational than to give the people power and withhold from them information without which power is abused. A popular government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy, or both."
James Madison

Today people want to know more. Today there is more to know. More to tell them. More they should know. If you don't tell them, you could wind up with dangerous street talk, "little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing."

It used to be the town report was enough. Used to be the town paper was enough between town reports. But times have changed. More happening between town reports. Fewer people read the papers or if they do they don't necessarily read the same paper. If they do you can't count on the paper getting it right or printed in a timely fashion or at all.

Today more and more and more towns are publishing their own newsletters and reinventing their town reports in an attempt to give their taxpayers the information they need to make sensible decisions. This packet contains some good examples of those efforts