DRAFT
Finance Committee Minutes
Town of Bellingham – Municipal Center
Monday, March 2, 2009
1. FinCom Present: Joseph Collamati, Raymond Szczepan, Henri Masson, Gary Maynard, Roland Lavallee, Carol Dill, Toni Picariello
2. FinCom Absent: N/A
3. Meeting called to order: 7:15 p.m.
4. GENERAL DISCUSSION
A. Review Budget Books
Marilyn Mathieu appeared with a draft budget. This is the first draft and the budget will be changing. She is waiting for the School Budget.
For expenses, the Retirement Assessment and Debt will be increasing. Free Cash, hopefully will pay for the snow and ice budget, which could be as high at $1M. With respect to personnel, they are trying not to lay-off any full-time employees, but will re-deploy.
For revenues, the motor vehicle excise taxes are down; people are not buying new cars. We are making nothing on investments.
Discussion was, what do we expect to receive from the State? We have not received the Cherry Sheet figures yet and she does not see it being finalized for a while. Due to the uncertainty of State aid, the Stimulus Bill, and final budget numbers not being available, it will be hard to balance the budget for May’s Town Meeting. Joseph Collamati suggested that it might be a good idea to postpone the financial portion (Articles 1, 2, 3, and 4) of the Town Meeting until sometime in June. Marilyn Mathieu agreed that this might have to be done to balance the budget.
Joseph Collamati/Henri Masson motion to recommend to the Board of Selectmen that they entertain the idea of postponing the financial portion of the Annual Town Meeting to the 3rd Wednesday in June, 2009. VOTE: 7/0
B. School Budget Hearings
Raymond Szczepan gave the Committee a copy of the “draft” FY2010 Budget Proposal. The School Committee is proposing laying off Teachers and custodians, keeping aides, pay to play, pay for buses, etc. There were 75 different ideas forwarded to the School Committee.
Adjourned: Raymond Szczepan/Henri Masson motion to adjourn. VOTE: 7/0, 8:05 p.m.
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