Soda comes caffeine-free and sugar-free, bread gluten-free, and the Wiscasset June ballot budget committee races, candidate-free. This is not an isolated incident for the panel that reviews and weighs in on the budget. Why? Why? 

My baseless theories are a) all residents are fully content with their property taxes every year; b) people are too busy earning money for their taxes and other bills to commit the time; c) the uneven, at times rancorous relationships between past Wiscasset boards of selectmen and budget committees may discourage former and/or potential budget committee members; and/or d) people do not feel qualified or comfortable to pull apart the numbers, crunch them and make recommendations that, if voters follow, could cost someone their job or support a tax hike.

Some or all of these could explain the dearth, and sometimes absence, of budget committee candidates. I would wager the first theory a longshot. 

It is too late to get on the ballot, but not too late to write your name in and ask others to write in yours or theirs. The town office can tell you exactly how write-ins must be entered on the write-in line.

I also encouraged people to run for budget committee and other town seats in a May 2016 editorial. Five years, more gray hair for some of us and one pandemic later, I ask again. 

I also ask for your insights as a past, current, or never member of the budget committee, into why it is so hard for Wiscasset, and sometimes other area towns, to get people to file papers for it. Please email susanjohns@wiscassetnewspaper.com

Week’s positive parting thought: At press time, two gray, raw days this week had defied forecasts and ended on decidedly sunny notes. Spring has spoken. Fear no April snow, fingers crossed!