Town Budget Process

I thought that citizens may be interested in how our town budgets are prepared and approved. This is the first of two or three postings that are a basic primer on the budget process for the town.

The town's fiscal year (FY) runs from July 1 to June 30. We are currently in FY'08 for accounting purposes in the town. The next Town Meeting will vote on the FY'09 budget.
The Town Meeting, which can be thought of as the legislature of the town, must authorize all expenditures and must allocate funds for specific purposes. Revenues come from the tax levy, fees, state aid and other sources. There are some exceptions to these requirements, but almost all spending must be approved by Town Meeting. The Town Meeting is made up of 39 residents from each of the 10 precincts of town for a total of 390 members. Town meeting members are listed here (PDF) At the spring Annual Town Meeting, members vote on a budget summary, called Schedule A, which lists the town departments and the amount of money to be allocated to general items in each department. The FY08 Schedule A can be viewed here (PDF) The Town Meeting can vote to add or subtract monies from the line items, but this is rarely done. The total spending allocated at Town Meeting must equal the available revenue. No deficit spending is allowed. Monies added to one line item must be subtracted from another, or drawn from reserve funds. If you are interested in the laws governing Town Meeting, you can find them here
The Town Meeting is aided in making decisions on the budget by the town Finance Committee. The Finance Committee is made up of 9 people who are appointed by the Town Meeting Moderator. You can learn more about the Finance Committee here. Prior to Town Meeting, the town administrator forwards a proposed budget and a budget message to the Finance Committee for their review. The Finance Committee spends many hours with the town administrator, budget director, and department heads going over the proposed town budget. They review the budget in much more detail than the Schedule A summary. The Finance Committee requires the town administrator to justify budget requests and they may negotiate changes in spending with the administrator and department heads. Then by majority vote, the Finance Committee recommends the budget to the Town Meeting. Once again, revenues must equal spending, no deficits allowed. If you are interested in the laws governing Finance Committee, you can find them here and here (in section 5). An exception to the above procedure is the school budget which will be covered in the next posting

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