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Notes provided by: Colleen Kirby Budget and Revenue Task Force Meeting Notes December 1, 2003 6:30 Attended by all Board of Selectmen, Suzanne Owayda-school committee, Al Tosti and Charlie Foskett-Fin. Com., Joanne Gurry asst. superintendent APS, a couple other fin com members, Nancy Galkowski-acting town manager, Marie Krepelka, a few others and about 20 or so members of the interested public. Diane Mahon said that although the Board of Selectmen received information from the School Committee on Oct. 14th about the school budget it would be good for the School Committee to educate the BOS more in terms of programs lost so we can better advocate with the school committee. Suzanne later asked when the BOS could get together with the full school committee (and our state reps. and some Fin. Com. members) and Kevin Greeley said that they could probably meet in early January as December is already booked. It was agreed that the school committee decides what to do with the budget allocation they get but we do need to discuss policy issues such as whether or not the amount they receive is adequate. Mr. Lyons expressed the need for consensus on what are our budget figures. He wants more solid figures for new growth and estimated local receipts preferably by January 1. He said at least we have good news in terms of low increases in Health Insurance costs (just over 5% if I recall correctly) and that pension costs are under control. Kathleen Dias also wanted accurate estimates as early as possible. Jack Hurd says the BOS needs to make timely policy decisions for the budgeting process. Al Tosti (Fin. Com.) was glad the BOS was reviewing budgets early so Fin Com can start on the budgets early in January, however he did say that revenue projections will be constantly changing and we won't have really accurate numbers until July, even though TM needs to approve the budget in May especially as we can't know state aid figures until the final numbers come out in late May. But we can estimate as best we can and can set priorities for TM. Diane Mahon wonders if it would be possible to build flexibility into the budget process so that increases in expenditure can be implemented if it looks like revenues will be better than first thought, etc. Al Tosti says that we do have open communication so changes can be made, but not the day before we go to TM or once TM is voting on the budget. Jack Hurd said that as this Budget and Policy Revenue Task Force is making important policy decisions he thought it wise for other key people to be present. I'm not sure who he thought it might be useful to have at their future meetings who might not be there today. Kevin Greeley said there has been talk about whether or not it would be wise to have a town CFO as some towns use this form of management. It was also brought up that perhaps a 3% spending cap would be something to consider. Mr. Lyons likes the spending cap idea although he said he didn't know how it might impact the school budget. He still wants to understand how the math would work out. Although Nancy Galkowski said that if we had spending caps on departments that would just mean that if fixed costs went up more than the cap of 3% then the rest of the budget would have to decrease which would mean a loss of services. (And, as it was already noted that a 5% increase in Health costs was good news, it wouldn't be such good news to a department that had to swallow that cost or any fixed cost above the specified % with a 3% cap. Also it doesn't address the question of town priorities.) Mr. Lyons mentioned that our Chapter 70 aid now is less than it was in 1993. He says the state is crippling communities like Arlington and he indicated that as they are the root of our fiscal crisis we need to complain to them to fix it. He passed out a table and graph from the Mass Municipal Assn showing how local aid has decreased as % of state expenditures since the 1980s from about 25% of the state budget to about 20% now. (I couldn't find the graph on the site to point to.) There will be a next meeting of the Budget and Revenue Task Force Committee later in December. These are my notes, taken to best of my ability and are no way official minutes or notes of any of the boards or individuals sited in my report. If I got anything wrong please let me know and I'll fix them. Thanks to Leslie Oringer for these additions:
SPOT
offers these notes as a service to the community. |
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