FY 2026 Petition Warrant Article Requests
Attached you will find the following items needed should you want to request funding for your agency for the Town of Gorham 2026 budget cycle:
- The Agency Funding Request Form
- Petition to Insert a Warrant Article
Important Dates:
Applications are due in by Friday, January 9th, 2026.
The petition to insert a warrant article is due in by Tuesday, February 3, 2026. No exceptions per RSA 39:3 – fifth Tuesday before town meeting.
You will need to print a couple of petition pages to get enough signatures. Mandatory 25 or 2% (whichever is lower) signatures of registered voters from the Town of Gorham. Please look to get 30 or 35 signatures as the Town Clerk may not be able to validate some. In the past the reasons have been; not a town resident, town resident but NOT a registered voter or the information written down is not legible. Please get them in by the last week in January so the clerk has time to validate all of your petitions. If your warrant is NOT validated it gives you time to get the few more signatures than you need.
The Public Budget Hearing is not currently scheduled, but will likely take place in the Medallion Opera House the week of 2/9/2026-2/13/2026. This post will be updated when a hearing date and time is set.
ALL agencies that requested funding MUST have a representative of their agency attend this meeting to answer any and all questions from the public.
As of Today (11/21/2025), Town Meeting will be Tuesday, March 10th, 2026, at 7:00 pm at the Gorham Middle/High School Gym. Any changes will be announced on the Town’s website.
There has been a legislative change to the petition warrant article process that will be effective for this budget cycle process. All petition warrant articles must identify a primary petitioner for the warrant, per RSA 39 & 40. Should a primary petitioner not be identified, the first (valid) signature on the form will be considered the primary. The primary petitioner should also be able to appoint a designee; this appointment should be made in writing to the moderator. Both the primary and designee (as applicable) should be identified prior to Town Meeting. During Town Meeting, the moderator will provider the primary petitioner and/or their designee up to a 10 minute introduction to the proposed warrant article. Should the primary or their designee conclude the introduction prior to the allotted 10 minutes, the moderator should ask if the primary petitioner or their designee has completed their introduction and carry on with Town Meeting as usual.
Thank you and Happy Holidays!
- 2026 Data Form (Link TBD)
- 2026 Petition Form (Link TBD)