Unlike many towns and cities, there is a great feeling community here. The town is primarily run by volunteers, not politicians. The equivalent of a mayor is a board of 3 selectmen. Only the First Selectman is salaried. Greenwich, like many New England Towns, used to be managed by a Town Meeting. As the town grew, this became unworkable and a RTM (Representative Town Meeting) was created to serve as the town’s legislative body. The RTM consists of 230 unpaid members selected on a non-partisan basis by voters in the town’s 12 districts. Any town issue can be brought before the RTM by a petition of 20 registered voters. The finances of the town are governed by the elected and unpaid BET (Board of Estimate and Taxation), whose goal is never to borrow long term and never to allow a tax increase of more than 3.5%. Consequently, Greenwich taxes are extremely low. The present mill rate is 12%.