Report from Select Board, Finance and School Committee meeting

The Finance Committee, Select, Board and School Committee met jointly tonight. You can find the meeting agenda here.
The Budget Director, Mr. Iacaponi, presented a revenue projection for FY10. Given the current fiscal situation in the nation and state, he felt that the funds available for budget preparation purposes would be $68,733,376, a 1% increase from FY09. The tax levy will grow 2-1/2% but he projected a 10% decrease in local receipts and no increase in state aid. The Finance Committee and Select Board voted unanimously to use that figure for budgeting purposes for FY10.
Mr Iacaponi then presented a expenditure projection which, ...

... when compared to the projected revenue, leaves an $818,794 deficit for the next fiscal year(FY10). That spending projection does not include any funds for increased wages and salary for non-school town employees. Mr. Iacaponi estimated that the cost of every 1% increase in wages and salary negotiated with the town bargaining units would be $109,913. The $109K figure does not include increases in benefits due to the wage increases.
The School Business Manager, Mr Cordeiro, presented an updated version of the school department's capital project requests. The application has been made to the state for the Quinnn school window project. The Town Meeting agreed to fund that project if the state will pay 50% or more of the $1.3 million cost.
School FY10 capital spending requests totaled about $1.5 million. The projects include middle school renovations, school security cameras, and disabled person access projects.
There was a brief discussion on a $300K grant which was obtained by our state representatives. It was decided to appropriate those funds at Spring Town Meeting.
Finally, Mr. Lynam presented a policy for the Stabilization Fund that sets a goal of 10% of the operating budget and sets the timetable to reach that goal at 5 years. I offered an amendment to set the goal at 10% of the tax levy. My motion failed to get a second. The joint Finance Committee and Select Board then adopted the new Stabilization Fund policy unanimously. You can find the new policy here at this previous posting.(look below the break)