Finance Committee Minutes – 8 February 2007, Hapgood Room
Meeting called to order at 7:30 p.m.
Members present: Colwell, Donovan, McKenna, Mead, Ricci, Russo, Sobalvarro
Administrators present: Bragan, Leonard
FC Warrant Book Assignments:
First draft due by February 17.
Vocabulary: Terry; Calculator: Marie; Schools: Cindy and Steve; Capital Plan: George; State of the Town: Debbie and Paul
Open Items:
A discussion ensued regarding the settlement and union/COLA issues, and the uncertainty regarding the SC/HTA negotiation.
Steps and column changes are incorporated in the FY08 budget.
A discussion was held regarding the Library’s proposed budget, and some modifications that would provide the same level of service for fewer dollars. George will follow-up with Mary to discuss.
The dump truck will be discussed later
School Budget:
Different approaches were discussed for understanding the proposed school budget, prospective reductions, and the rationale behind the increase. The proposed budget was increased to reflect the additional average health insurance costs to the Town per new FTE.
Several alternatives were presented: (a) a review of programmatic changes and their associated dollars ($273k reduction); (b) a flat percentage increase (5%) over prior year coupled with a programmatic review ($491k reduction); (c) a breakout of the unavoidable (steps and columns, utilities) expenses ($367k from total budget, leaving $410k for programmatic changes).
Lorraine requested input regarding what should occur with the Town’s Extraordinary Aid filing for circuit breaker reimbursement. It was moved and voted 7-0 that the filing should be applied to next year’s SPED reimbursement, in keeping with the one-year-lag of reimbursement for SPED expenses.
The CPC will be presenting to FinComm in 2 weeks.
The meeting adjourned at 9:50 p.m.
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