In preparation for Monday night's Town Meeting, residents peppered town officials with questions on each of the warrant articles at a 'pre-town meeting forum' on Thursday.

The panel of town officials discussed every article on the annual and special warrants, but at the front everyone's minds were the two budget articles: the balanced budget and the contingent budget that includes a $4.5 million override.

Resident Jeff Langan asked how the town ended up in this financial state and why there has been such a dramatic increase in employee benefit expenditures.

"It is the 800 pound gorilla in the room that has to be addressed," he said. "We've got a tax base that's not going up and expenses that keep on growing."

Town Administrator Derek Sullivan said he has taken steps to lessen the immediate impact of benefit expenses as well as to change the way the town funds them in the long- term.

He said that over a year ago, he began renegotiation with the unions to change the split between what the town pays and employees pay for town employee health care.

Over six years, the split will gradually change from 75 percent town and 25 percent employee to 67.5 percent town and 32.5. percent employee.

"During that six years it's going to save the taxpayers $5 million dollars," Sullivan said.

The next step for the future, according to Sullivan, is to move away from self-funded healthcare and to join an outside group.

Sullivan said when the town switched to a self-funded system, they were told they would save money, and for the first few years they did.

"But as we've laid off, and in a union environment you lay off your newest, which is usually the youngest.  We now have an older population who are high-risk and high- insured," he said.

Earlier this week, Sullivan said he sent a letter to join an outside group, the Mayflower group, that has better rates than the town.

Finance Committee Chairman Larry McDonald said the other major problem facing the the town in the future will be a crumbling infrastructure and the lack of stabilization funds to repair structures and equipment around town.

"I want us to replace our police cars so we save money in the long run, fix our buildings and sell some of the assets that we don't need," he said. "We've neglected it an we have to catch up."

The Department of Revenue was not satisfied with the $411,000 in the stabilization fund when they met with town officials last year.

There is an article in the warrant which requests to transfer $440,000 from free cash to a the stabilization fund, and the override in the contingent budget provides for $500,000 to go to the stabilization fund this year. The balanced budget provides no extra money toward the fund.

Another article about the infrastructure in town that saw heavy discussion was Article 23, a petition article by resident Joe Mulkern for the registration of abandoned buildings.

Mulkern explained that the bylaw would impose maintenance obligations on the owners of foreclosing properties and requires the owner to register with the town and pay an annual registration fee of $100.

He said with annual inspections of the nearly 50 abandoned and derelict buildings in town, the property values of abutters would be protected. The bylaw was successfully enacted in Walpole three years ago, according to Mulkern.

"It's not going to cost the town a dime," he said. "If we can get rid of these derelict buildings, it's going to bring our tax base up and the town is going to make money."

But both the Board of Selectmen and the Finance Committee voted in opposition the measure, with concerns about the potential costs in resources and legal fees.

Selectman Alan Slavin said he was told by the town administrator in Walpole that the bylaw was written and used because of one specific property in town and hasn't been used in any other situation since.

Along with the budgets and Mulkern's article, voters will be asked to vote on issues dealing with the high school roof, the transfer of development rights bylaw, community preservation funding and others. Wareham Week's stories on those subjects can be seen below. The annual and special town warrants can be seen here on the town website.