Town of Newbury
Finance Committee Meeting
(In Conjunction with the Board of Selectmen)
Tuesday, April 27, 2010; 7:00 pm, Town Hall
Meeting Summary
In Attendance: Bob Connors, Gene Case, Frank Remley (Chair), Anna Tenaglia
Also Attending: Chuck Kostro, Town Administrator/Finance Director
The purpose of this meeting was to address the proposed FY 11 budget, and arrive at a
consensus proposal for the Annual Town Meeting warrant articles.
Initially the BOS expressed concern that the Finance Committee had proposed a deficit budget.
Frank Remley started discussion by citing a number of issues that needed to be addressed:
1. What is the BOS preference between a balanced vs. deficit budget based on expected
revenues and operating needs, and reasonable anticipation of additional revenues?
2. How much Free Cash should be utilized in the FY 11 revenue and budget projections?
3. Should a 2% COLA be incorporated in the FY 11 budget appropriation, and can we
afford it?
4. Should a reasonable reserve fund be projected?
5. Should Life-guards for PI Beach be included at $39,000 for FY 11?
6. Will the BOS consider adding a warrant article for permission to include an override
ballot question in the November election, should it be needed.
After considerable discussion, the conclusions to the above questions were:
1. The BOS was not comfortable going into FY 11 with a deficit budget. It further felt that
getting approval at town meeting would be problematic. It was therefore agreed to
reduce projected expenditures to balance the budget as closely as possible. It was
therefore decided to reduce the expenditure forecast by $152,000 as follows:
a. BOS compensation: ($10,000)
b. Lifeguards: ($39,000)
c. Reserve Fund: ($35,000)
d. COLA: ($40,000)
e. DPW expense: ($20,000)
f. Treas/Coll office expense: ($3,000)
Total budget expenses for FY 11 will then be $17,077,753. Some changes to the
revenue forecast amounted to an additional $30,000 for a total of $17,084,503. The net
result for the Annual Town Meeting, therefore, would be a projected surplus of $6,750.
2. Free cash to be utilized as revenue for FY 11 is now $100,000, but no additional funds
will be requested from the stabilization fund, now at approximately $334,000.
3. It was agreed not to fund a Cost of Living Increase for employees at this time.
4. The reserve fund was reduced from $75,000 to $40,000
5. No funding for Life-guards at PI Beach in FY 11, although a $3,000 expense item was
retained for warning signs. (The budget presented that night followed the original vote of
the Finance Committee which eliminated both salaries for Lifeguards and the $3,000
expense item. The $3,000, if it is intended for signs, doesn’t become available until July
1st. The signs need to be up before Memorial Day. Therefore, we will transfer $3,000
from FY10’s Lifeguard wages to Lifeguard Expenses so that we can get the signs in
time.
6. No action was taken on a proposal to add a warrant article to ask permission to add and
override question to the ballot for fall elections.
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