HomeMy WebLinkAbout1987-10-21 Finance Committee Minutes �r
Finance Committee
Meeting 10/21/87
All members present
Meeting called to order (7) at 7; 35. Minutes of prior meetings
were distributed, and various information was disseminated to the
committee by the chairman and members. The Town Manager
will be out of town 10/23/87 to 10/27/87. Beth Rlepis will be
acting Town Manager. The 3rd progress payment for Peat Marwick
relating to the 6/30/87 Audit was approved for payment. for $10,800.00.
The Warrent articles for the special Town Meeting on 11/12/87
were then btiefly reviewed. Only 2 Articles appear to need
FinCom approval. Art. 4 which allows the Selectmen to sell
the landfill to someone other than Homart, namely Embassy
Suites. Art. 11 Funding to implement the Wage study recently
completed in the amount of $25,000.00.
At this time the chairman read the notice from the Mass.
Dept of Revenue confirming the amount of surplus revenue
available to the Northeast Vocational School As $9B,667.00.
If this amount had been 58 of their OperatiOg budget (418,965).
the excess ove 5% would have to be used to reduce assesments
to the towns in the district. -
Randy Harrison then expressed his unfavorable impressions of the
.way the Northeast Voke handles its budgets, finances etc. He
would like to have Reading attempt (possible with Other towns
involved) to influence the Budgeting,Assesments, Educational
criteria etc of the Voke. School Committee.
Discussion then turned to Article 21, Municipal Space Committee
request for funding of the Town Hall Connector et al.
Ten Year Operating Budget forcasts were distributed and Don
Allen stated that the figures were Substantially in agreement
with those the Town Accountant had worked up.
The end result of the Spread Sheets is that with the help of
interest on Real Estate Funds, increased Tax income due to development
of commercial Real Estate, Use of all Free Cash the town could
fund about 2,500,000, in Capital projects. The cost of these
projects would impact the operating budget of the town in
Fiscal 1993 of 1994. At that time the budget defecits and -
costs of Debt Service on the 2,500,000 would have to be
handled with a combinagtion of Budget Cuts, Dipping into Real Estate
Funds, and various income enhancements. The budget defecit
could reach the million dollar level in 1994 ow 1995.
Motion to approve Art. 21 for $3,9001000
Motion amended to $500,000 Approved 5-3-0 (500,000 is minimum
for handicapped access)
Motion to table AYticle 21 was defeated after some parlimentary
wrangling.
Vote on the main article now ammended to 500,000 1-6-0 MotiOn
defeated /
Vote to approve in original amt of 3,900 000 0-9-0 DefeatA
Ffnance Comm7�ttee
JV2.;l187 _LcontIL
This was a very difficult meeting and Fincom members
maintained their sense of humor and decorum throughout .
the meeting.
Fincom has made a stand which may prove to be unpopular.
This vote can of course be reconsidered if additional
facts are brought to Fincoms' attentiory.
The two main objections seemed to be:I We have not
consumated the Landfill Sales and should not undertake
major projects until "The money is in the bank" and 2.
Even with the Sales of Real Estate Funds as projected,
the town still faces operating Wc�-i
to in the foreseeable
future and cannot afford 6 million o Lars in Capital projects.
This will probably be a difficult position to defend at
Town Meeting since the Real Estate Funds are so tempting,
and Town Meeting is probably tired of the eternal Town Hall _
and Fire Station problems and may be ready to spend on
those projects.
Next meeting scheduled. for 11/5/87 to discuss The Special
Warrant articles and discuss comments the chairman plans _
on making to Town Meeting regarding the various articles
in the warrants.
Don Allen
Clerk
"
4W