Regards,Finance Committee Minutes – 26 January 2008, Town Hall
Meeting called to order at 8:50 a.m.
Members present: Colwell, McKenna, Ricci, Sobalvarro, Thurston
Administrators present: Bragan, Leonard
Three handouts (Finance Committee FY09 Budget Review: ‘Revenue vs. Spending; and ‘Status as of Jan. 25, 2008,’ and ‘Jan 26, 2008 Tri-Board Mtg’ ) were reviewed for distribution to the tri-board; minor edits and updates were suggested and made.
At 9:10 a.m. the Finance Committee meeting expanded to include representatives from the Board of Selectmen and the School Committee.
Selectmen present: Clark, Eubank, Wallace
School Committee members present: Justicz, Stevens, Verbits, Wickman
Superintendent Jefferson
‘Recap sheet of the Omnibus Budget’ (dated 1/25/08) showing a deficit of $1,297,121 for FY09
This is built with the following assumptions and components: (a) Cherry Sheet revenue remains flat from FY08 and assessments are projected to be $763k. (b) Local receipts remain level (+$7k from FY08) and (c) Placeholders inserted for the Capital Warrant ($150k) and Small Warrant ($65k) articles, pending the meeting of the Capital Committee scheduled for January 30th .
The total amount to be raised is $21,125,190; total projected expenses are $22,422,311.
A discussion ensued regarding the Wetlands fund revenue, the Library Trust fund, and the calculation of the Overlay Surplus.
Finance Committee FY09 Budget Review, Revenue vs. Spending
Increased revenue is ~$506k; increased spending is $1,454k (Selectmen $143k, Elected Boards $59k, Local Schools $866k, Benefits and Insurance $386k).
Out of this, approximately $800k is for salaries, $386k benefits, and $286k ‘utilities and other.’
Cherry sheet charges are estimated at +$85k; this number may shift based on our confidence of the just-released assessments.
Increased spending versus new revenues net to ($1,024k).
A discussion ensued regarding what the component labeled ‘replace use of one-time funds at Oct ’07 STM’ meant; in short, it meant that applying $273k in free cash at the STM has increased what would have been a ~$1,024k deficit to ~$1,296k deficit for FY09.
Finance Committee FY09 Budget Review, Status as of Jan 25,2008
A discussion ensued regarding the $222k component of the $1,296k deficit[i].
The open discussion was to define – or attempt to define – which components of the $222k (and the $1,296k) are fixed versus variable. Not all cost savings were evaluated by FinComm; for example, layoffs would be a cost-savings opportunity.
George McKenna suggested that we ‘take another look at all of the budgets, review them, and confirm that we’ve found all possible cost-savings.’ All three boards agreed to participate in this exercise, and return next Saturday with the results of their second review.
A holding-date for an additional tri-board meeting was scheduled for Thursday, February 7th at 7:30 p.m.
The tri-board meeting dispersed, and the scheduled Finance Committee meeting convened at 10:50 a.m.
Members present: Colwell, McKenna, Ricci, Sobalvarro, Thurston
Administrators present: Leonard
Two areas of the recap were reviewed: Cherry Sheet revenues and assessments, and Local Receipts.
We agreed to keep Cherry Sheet revenues flat, in accordance with our earlier assumption. In the Governor’s budget, Chapter 70 revenue is increasing, yet Lottery Aid is decreasing, and we concluded that it is too early to modify our assumption of flat revenue from FY08.
We agreed to keep our FY09 estimate for Local Receipts at $1,622k at this time, after reviewing all receipt categories.
Warrant overview:
We reviewed the warrant, and assigned responsibilities for text, and discussed looking at other metrics which would rank Harvard’s performance/composition in addition to the tax bill ranking:
Finance Committee Report à Debbie, George, Bob
State of Our Town à Marie, Steve
Local Schools à Debbie, Terry, and Steve
Our expectation is that members will begin to draft outlines for their sections, and we will be able to vote as a committee on the individual warrant articles at our February 12th meeting.
The meeting adjourned at 12:25 p.m.
[i] The $1.296M deficit was evaluated by Tim Bragan and Lorraine Leonard ; the $222k component is the remainder of ‘increased expenses for FY09’ which are not a result of additional personnel, contracts (personnel and equipment), and increased utility expenses.
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