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Finance Committee Meeting Minutes
November 7, 2013
10 – 10:45am
Present: Stanley Ross, Donald Clawson and Dan Moriarty
- Monterey’s stabilization fund and free cash:
- The Committee began reviewing the town’s future capital expenses and discussed how stabilization funds have been used in the past for capital expenditures. Financing large purchases keeps the tax rate low as it spreads the payments out over time. The Committee feels that as long as the interest rates are reasonably low, financing is really the best option as things get more expensive.
- Stabilization: The Committee believes ours is around $800,000 right now but will double check with the Treasurer. The Committee discussed the differences between the stabilization fund and free cash: stabilization requires a 2/3 vote at town meeting to use the money, free cash is a simple majority vote. Last year we had around $181,000 in free cash but we are still waiting on a final number from the state for this year. The Committee is going to ask M. Noe to survey the surrounding towns to see how much they keep in their stabilization funds to try to get a better feel for where we stand; if we should be saving more or less or are we about status quo. The Committee also discussed the need to use stabilization for emergencies as well as for capital expenses.
- Monterey’s overall budget is $3.3 million.
- Dan updated the Committee on the ECAC’s salary subcommittee’s focus. He feels that they are leaning toward working on getting the 2nd ½ of the proposed salary increases for the Police Chief and Sergeant which were cut in half last year under the agreement that the other ½ would be given in FY15. They are also looking at salaries for full and part timers and at offering benefits to all employees. No dollar amounts have been discussed yet.
- The Assessors are still waiting on the FY13 books to be closed so that the free cash can be certified and a tax rate can be set.
- Sometime in December the Committee will ask M. Noe to prepare and send out the budget requests to all departments.
- The Finance Committee is finalizing their FY12 town report and will send it to M. Noe.
- The next meeting will be December 12th at 10am.
Submitted by,
Melissa Noe, Executive Secretary
Via audio recording
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