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BOARD OF FINANCE MINUTES
WORK SESSION
Wednesday, April 10, 2002
I. CALL TO ORDER - Chairman Tom Harrison called the meeting to order at 7:00 P.M. in the Avon Room, Town Hall. Present were members Tom Gugliotti, Bill Hooper, Steve McGuff, Michael Monts, Jim Speich and Mark Zacchio.
II. OLD BUSINESS
01/02-22 FY02/03 Budget
Chairman Harrison stated the reason the Town Council and Board of Education were asked to join us tonight is that although we had an interesting meeting last night, the Board of Finance has developed some budget objectives that they would like to take back to the Annual Budget Meeting in May. The one objective that makes the most impact on the bottom line is that the Board of Finance is not prepared to recommend a tax increase higher than 7.7%, which would result in a 2.0 mill increase. The Council indicated they will try to comply, but they will need some leeway on where the cuts are to be made. The Chairman of the Board of Education indicated their budget is very tight and this may not be possible. However, they would like an exact figure to be reduced before they caucus. There followed
some discussion about the computers and the library books for the new school and although the Board of Finance didn't formally vote on, it because there was not a resolution in front of them on which to take a vote, a substantial number of the members of the Board of Finance stated that if it came to that, they would be prepared to include both the computers and the library books within the bond proceeds. It's clear, for purposes of tonight's meeting that the library books and computers are about as certain as can be to come under the bond, which makes some favorable impact on the budget of the Board of Education for next year.
To achieve a goal of a mill increase of not more than 2.0 mills, both the Town Council and the Board of Education are going to have to do some fairly sharp calculations, get out the pencils and make some reductions. Our obligation and prerogative under the Charter is to present a recommended budget to the voters at the Annual Town and Budget Meeting on May 6th. The ball is now in our court and we'll do what we have to do under the Charter, to submit an acceptable budget. This is a tough year, we can't make everybody happy, but I hope we can make people understand that what we're recommending is fair and reasonable. It's something that all of us in this room will have to pay, whatever the mill rate is.
Ms. Friedman asked if she could speak to the budget tonight. She wants it known that she does support bonding the computers and the library books. She believed the residents thought it was included.
Mr. Gugliotti stated if the Board of Education were to come to us next year and request that 100 new computers for the Middle School be bonded, it would fall on many deaf years.
Mr. Harrison reported that last evening we informally discussed the level of cuts we would need to get to meet our goal and we had suggested some items to the Town Council. It will be necessary for the Board of Education to find about $650,000 in reductions to the operating budget to accomplish this goal. This will not include the library books. The Board of Education recessed to caucus at 7:20 p.m. to consider the requests made by the Board of Finance.
The Town Council was advised that the Board of Finance is looking for reductions of $425,000 from the Town's operating budget and $926,000 from the Capital Improvement Budget. The Town Council reported that they are prepared to comply with the recommendations of the Board, both on the Town's Operating Budget and the Capital Improvement Budget with the stipulation that they will have some leeway where the reductions are to be made.
The Board of Education reconvened at 8:10 P.M. and reported they could achieve only $574,000 of the $650,000 requested. The Town Manager recommended several adjustments to the budget , such as increasing sewer assessment. After discussion among the Board of Finance, the consensus was that the Board of Education could live with the requested reductions, which would result in a 7.5% increase, or 1.95 mills.
Final reconciliation produced budgets of $30,858,589 for the Board of Education, $14,544,010 for the Town Council, $760,081 for the Sewers, $1,493,000 in Capital projects and $4,425,320 for debt service, for a total budget of $52,091,000.
On a motion made by Mr. Monts, seconded by Mr. Gugliotti, it was voted:
RESOLVED: That the Board of Finance recommends a budget in the amount of $52,091,000 for fiscal year 2002/2003, to a Town Meeting on May 6, 2002.
Messrs. Harrison, Hooper, Gugliotti, McGuff, Monts, Speich and Zacchio voted in favor.
III. OTHER BUSINESS
The Town Manager reported there will not be a meeting on April 22nd as there are not sufficient agenda items. The next meeting will be the Annual Town Meeting on May 6th, 2002.
IV. ADJOURNMENT
There being no further business, the Chairman declared the meeting adjourned at 8:30 P.M.
Respectfully submitted,
Thomas A. Gugliotti, Secretary
Attest:
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