Latest MOB file

Mr. Lynam of the Finance Committee sends this email regarding the MOB file

Bill,
I am going to try something new with the impending distribution of the MOB files ahead of this Thursday's Fin Com meeting.
There has been data I have omitted from the MOB due to its size that I really want to have for my own use. Editing it out because of the file size, or maintaining two separate files, is a pain in the %$^&*#.
I have created a web page, of sorts, for the general public in that [ Free ] Mickey Mouse template that Comcast provides [ no disrespect meant to Mickey ] .
http://home.comcast.net/~alecsradio

From this link there is a general description of what the MOB file is, and isn't, along with a link to a file called " MOB.xls " ... this will always be the most current iteration of the file.
For the normal distribution to the normal suspects I will provide a direct download link to the most current file named in the usual manner [ FY10 MOB 6_26_09.xls ... for example ] All this should make it easier for those with limited download speeds and / or mailbox limitations, while at the same time avoiding you from having to take up huge amounts of space in your blog storage.
I thought I would give this a try and see how it works out.
Any comments or suggestions are welcome ......

The FY10 budget is some $84K ...

... in the red right now. That is without town employee pay increases and assuming the state does not cut our aid as they did this year. Negotiations with town employee unions are underway or beginning.
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Latest financial file from Finance Committee

The latest MOB file from Mr. Lynam of the Finance Committee can be found at this link. This file reflects the changes made at Town Meeting. Of note are the items which were not funded due to lack of revenue. Among them are police cars, road maintenance and school technology which total more than $450,000. Also not included is any pay increase for town employees.
The future year projections continue to show deficits and the projections are probably optimistic in that they have state aid continuing at current levels which seems unlikely and no increase for town employee wages in future years. Another area of concern is ...

...that the state target for Dartmouth's reimbursement under Chapter 70 aid is 17.5%. The reimbursement percentage is being slowly decreased until we reach that level.
The town has made some progress toward fiscal health but there are still difficult choices ahead. I hope that we can adequately plan to met these challenges. Over the past few years, the taxpayers have added over $4 million dollars to the town's budget if you include fees and override tax increases. Town employees are going to take wage freezes or have reduced numbers. We need to move aggressively to reduce costs through increased use of technology, regional agreements, consolidation of departments and outsourcing to continue to deliver services.
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Finance Committee MOB file 5/12

The latest MOB file form Mr. Lynam of the Finance Committee can be found at this link.
Mr. Lynam notes that "Legislative State Aid proposals are still in progress and fluctuating by $hundred's of thousands of dollars daily. It is impossible to know where we stand with any degree of confidence."
The spreadsheet is ...

...the best we have for now but the state aid figures are likely to be less than indicated
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Latest MOB file and Schedule A budget

Here is the latest MOB file which contains a tab for Schedule A and CIP requests for each department.
Go through this file carefully and you will have a very good understanding of the town budget. This file shows that the town proposes to spend less...

...in total dollars next year than it did this year. Quite an accomplishment and kudos are due to the town departments and the Finance Committee. We are on the right track. We need to hold the line, gain some efficiencies where possible, and a sustainable budget will result.
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MOB file in advance of tonight's Finance Committee meeting

Mr. Lynam has been working diligently, as always, to keep this file updated. A daunting task around budget time as new information arrives daily. This is a link to the newest update dated 4/1/09. As always, I have deleted previous version from the server as my storage space is limited and it is a large file.

Previous posting links to the MOB file are now inoperative. As I am typing this, it occurs to me that I should rename the file and save the latest version to the server and then use that name in all future posts. That way the links would all work and only the latest would be available. I'll go that route in the future.
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Latest FY10MOB file

This MOB file reflects that latest information from Thursday's Finance Commitee meeting. Link here for the file

As before older versions have been deleted and only this most recent file has an active link.
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Finance Committee financial data and analysis

Find the latest information on town budgets and finances in this recent MOB file from Mr. Lynam. Link to it here. As I have posted before, I removed the previous MOB file from my web host because I get limited space with a free account and the file is large.

If you try to access the file from previous posts, you will get a "file not found error".
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Latest MOB file from Mr. Lynam

The link to the latest financial information and analysis from the Finance Committee can be found here, MOB file dated 2/20/09. Please note that I delete previous files from my server when I upload the latest. I do that because of the size of the file and the limited storage I get with the free web hosting. What it means to you ...

... is that only the link for the latest MOB file post will work.
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Latest iteration of the MOB file

You can find the latest budget file from the Finance Committee, the spreadsheet is called the MOB file, at this link.
The Budget and Finance Director gave updated information to the Finance Committee at their meeting on Thursday. The current file does not reflect those projections. The major changes were to school funding with the local district's required net spending going down due to declining enrollment and our Voke assessment going up as more Dartmouth students chose Voke.

Once again, I want to thank Mr. Lynam for generating the spreadsheet and analysis. It is an invaluable service to the town.
As part of the normal budget process, the Finance Committee will begin hearing from department heads next Thursday with the Police Chief and DPW Director presenting their FY2010 budgets.
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Finance Committee budget priority update

The Finance Committee and Select Board went over the FY2010 budget last night and looked at funding targets for town departments.
The first change discussed was to increase the Snow and Ice Removal budget which has been set at $45,000 for some years now. Dartmouth typically spends well over $100,000 on this item. The reason that the amount has not increased in the budget is that this line item cannot be reduced, but can be overspent without any appropriation. So we have been setting aside a separate reserve for the item to cover the difference. The decision was to budget that line item at $100,000 for FY 2010.
Most departments are looking at a substantial reduction in funding. The police budget was level funded...


...with no cuts to personnel.
The DPW, Library and Parks budgets will be cut 15%.
It was proposed that the Conservation Department will take over the functions of the Soil Conservation department and the Harbormaster and volunteers take over for the Natural Resources (shellfish warden). Those two departments, Soil Conservation and Natural Resources, will not be funded.
The Recreation department will not be funded and will sustain itself from fees. This department was been fee funded for some time but the appropriation was made and then the funds returned as the fees were paid. This budget changes that arrangement. Finally, the Youth Commission and school crossing guards will not be funded in the FY2010 budget.
To get more information on the funding for particular departments, look at the Finance Committee MOB file here and open the priorities tab at the bottom. Not listed is about $71,000 for crossing guards which, in any case, had the funding zeroed out.
I would like to see the funds from the Youth Commission and crossing guards used to restore some of the cuts to the DPW budget. The 15% reduction to their budget is crippling to a few of their functions.
As always, leave your comments below.
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Latest MOB file from Mr. Lynam

The latest information on Dartmouth's budget can be found here. I have deleted the previous file from the server since I have limited storage space on it and these are very large files. This particular file will be used by the Finance Committee tonight at their meeting to set the amounts ...

... for the departmental FY2010 budgets. Select Board members will also be attending and between the two groups we hope to have budget numbers for the department heads when they come before the Finance Committee in the next few weeks to hash out the FY2010 budget
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Finance Committee MOB file 1/15/09

UPDATE I deleted this version of the file from the server. The latest can be found at this link
BillT 1/27/09

Mr. Lynam of the Finance Committee puts together a town financial spreadsheet, which he calls the MOB file, from numbers given him by the Budget Director, Mr. Iacaponi. It is unfortunate that we don't get this sort of clear information from the Finance Department. In fact, that DOR recommended that in their July 2007 report on Dartmouth's finances. From that report, Page 9:

Whatever form such a plan takes, it should contain the following core elements:
1. Multi-year outlook (3-5 fiscal years)
2. Inventory of revenue sources and projected increases/decreases
3. Expenditure projections that reflect labor, expenses and planned service levels
4. Impact of financial goals/policies are assigned a specific dollar value
5. Integration of infrastructure investment based on approved capital plan
6. Current-year revenue and expenditure monitoring
7. Presentation format that facilitates meaningful communication to the public

Mr. Lynam has trouble at times getting the information to compile and getting the numbers to add up, but overall this is the clearest picture of our financial situation available. The MOB file goes out to many people in the town,...

... the Finance Committee, the Select Board, administrators, and interested citizens (the cast of Ben Hur in Mr. Lynam's words).
A couple of caveats are in order about this file. These are unofficial numbers, only the Budget Director can publish official financial information for the town. The tabs in the spreadsheet which have all lower case titles are analysis done from the underlying data which is on the tabs with upper case titles.
There are several macros which Mr. Lynam has included in this Microsoft Office Excel format file. When prompted to enable macros, select disable. When prompted to update select No.
You will need to have Excel or Open Office to open the file. Open Office is freeware and can be found here.
The information presented in this spreadsheet, the MOB file, is comprehensive and taking a number out of it here or there is not indicative of the overall picture in most cases. When you look it over at first don't get hung up on the percentage changes or details, it is best to get a broad overview and then go back and look at the specific items of interest. As always, leave your comments below.
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