Newtown last week emerged from what seemed like one of those exhausting dreams we all have from time to time wherein nothing is simple, logic bends and turns back in on itself, and repeated attempts to get something right only make things worse. Somehow, after all the tossing and turning, the town woke up last Friday morning with an approved budget just in the nick of time for tax bills to go out.

There was not much about the budget process this year that left anyone feeling invigorated; no one came out of it satisfied or even encouraged that the protracted process had left the town on the right track. For that reason, the work of the newly appointed Charter Revision Commission in the next few weeks takes on added importance, as it strives to set things right with some new ground rules for adopting local budgets. Key to that effort will be the invention of a means for giving Newtown voters a clearer voice and a vocabulary for expressing that clarity beyond a mere Yes or No, which this year led down the rabbit hole to frustrating exchanges like this: Q: What part of No don’t you understand? A: The part that means Yes.

We have previously advocated in this space for a split budget vote on town and school spending plans, with advisory questions designed to guide the council in the event of a budget rejections. There is cause, however, for the new charter panel to proceed with care. As this year’s budget went through is various iterations, it became clear just how much the two sides of the budget influence each other and intertwine. For example, debt financing for all capital projects — school and town — is carried on the town side of the budget. And in the budget endgame this year, it was money from the town’s contingency and fund balance accounts that spared the school district additional cuts. There may be benefits from this kind of give and take across budgets that warrant accommodation in whatever eventual budget approval process the Charter Revision Commission recommends.

The town is in a justifiable hurry to get these charter revisions on the ballot this November so that next year’s budget voting does not devolve into the recurring nightmare it was for 2012-2013. It is important, however, to pause long enough for a full hearing of considerations and comments from all quarters on how to better articulate the public’s will through the ballot box. To that end the new charter panel has scheduled the first of two public hearings on these issues for Wednesday evening, July 25, at 7, in the council chambers at the Municipal Office Building, 3 Primrose Street, at Fairfield Hills. We encourage anyone exhausted and confused by the process this year to attend with ideas for waking Newtown up to a better way to pass a budget.