1995-11-13 Subsequent Town Meeting Minutes

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1995 SUBSEQUENT TOWN MEETING Reading Memorial High School November 13, 1995 The meeting was called to order by the Moderator, Paul C. Dustin, at 7:45 p.m., there being a quorum present. The Invocation was given by Rev. David Reid, First Baptist Church, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. The Warrant was read by the Town Clerk, Catherine A. Quimby, when on motion by Sally M. Hoyt, it was voted'to dispense with further reading of the Warrant except for the Officer's Return, which was read by the Town Clerk. ARTICLE 1 - Stephen J. Blewitt, Precinct 6 and Chairman of the Finance Committee, moved Article l and presented the following Finance Committee Report which was accepted as a Report of Progress: On behalf of the Finance Committee, I would like to give Town Meeting a short review of (1) the budget process being developed by the Board of Selectmen, School Committee and Finance f I Committee; (2) a status of the current year's budget; a status of cash reserves; and a preliminary look at the Town's 5-year budget forecast. I The Selectmen, School Committee and Finance Committee have made an enormous effort during the past six months to improve communications between the three bodies, enhance Town and school cooperation, and to develop a budget process which identifies and attempts to resolve issues earlier. The agreement that we have reached involves reviewing and accepting revenue estimates, expense guidelines and a process to address items which do not meet these guidelines. To date, we have adopted initial revenue estimates and expense guidelines for FY 1997. With regard to our current year's budget, the Finance Committee has reviewed revenues and expenditures as of September 30th. Both revenues and expenditures are running approximately $200,000 greater than expected which is the subject matter of Article 5. Looking forward, the School Committee has indicated that their budget may require an additional $280,000 which they expect to address at Spring Town Meeting, if necessary. With regard to Cash Reserves, which includes free cash and monies in the reserve account, the Finance Committee recently adopted a policy which will guide its recommendations to Town Meeting: The policy is to have 5% of annual revenues as the amount of cash reserves in the beginning of each fiscal year; to not use more than 1% of annual revenues to balance the budget at the beginning of the fiscal year, and to maintain at least 3% during the course of the year. The purpose of this policy is to maintain adequate reserves but to also have some flexibility to resolve short-term budget issues. Our current reserves of $1.9 million is a healthy 5.25% of revenues and we do not expect to go below 3% during the year.