3/24/2011 FINANCE COMMITTEE Minutes

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' 1 w George Schmidt, Clerk, Christopher Avis, Mark. Davini, William Johnson, and Robert Chalker, the members of the Finance Committee." P resentation of Proposed FY1 2 Budget—Charles Ga i or Charles Gasior stated that in the Town of Mashpee, the Executive level of government is the Board of Selectmen and the Town Manager, and in the Open Town Meeting form of government, the Legislative branch of government is compfis d of all the taxpayers in the town. Therefore, the people who come to the town meeting are, in effect, exercising their right as the legislative branch of our government. This represents the purest form of d ernocra y. If is incumbent on the residents to learn what is happening in their municipalities. The Charter requires that the Finance Committee review all warrant articles in the budget and male recommendations to the legislature branch of the government. The way this is accomplished is that a week before the Town !Meeting, a booklet containing the Finance Committee report with recommendations on all the warrant articles that will be discussed at Town Meeting will be mailed to all town residents for their review. Mr. Gasior explained that the first section of the booklet will contain the Finance Committee's recommendations on all the budget line iters that are going to be discussed at the May 2nd Town Meeting. The Moderator at the Town Meeting will be explaining the information in the middle section of the booklet. The principal business of the May Town Meting is the municipal budget for the fiscal year 2012 which begins on July 1, 2011 and ends on June 30, 2012. Mr. Gasior explained that the Moderator will be going through the budget, giving a line by line description of all the elements included in the rnunicipal'budget. The Finance Committee has prepared a one-page summary table titled,"Summary of FY 2012 Municipal Appropriations ire Town Manager's Budget". Mr. Gasior stated-that the line l#ern under General Expenses, Interest & Principal on Debt, reflects an increase of$402,375 in total dela payment for the town in FY 2012 due to the library debt which the town has assured. Mr. Gasior commented on the debt schedule for the town, stating that in 2018 the high school debt will be paid off, and in the year 2028 the debt will be down to $425,675. Mr. Gasior noted that at this point in time there is no other future debt of any magnitude anticipated until and unless the town gets to the point of undertaking the sewer project. Mr. Gasior stated that one of the requirements of the charter for the Finance Committee is to try.to project the tax rate ars a result of the proposed budget for the corning fiscal year. The budget will not go into effect until July 1, and the tax rate will not,be set until December of the year, making it a difficult task. The com mitt a m' u t take the budget and offset that with-the non-property to revenues including state revenues, municipal receipts, the use of surplus funds and uses of other funds such as the Community Preservation fund. The difference between the budget amount and the non-property tax revenues represents the amount to be raised by taxation. This year the'total of the budget to be presented to the Town Meeting is $49,910,640,,or an increase of 3.2% over last year, which will be offset by $12,169,939,-resulting in an amount of$37,740,701 to be raised by takes. After talking with the Town Assessor, the Committee anticipates that the property values will decline by another 4%this year, resulting in a projected tax rate for FY 2012 of$8.83 per thousand, or an increase of 46 cents. Mr. Gasior reviewed for the meeting each line item included in the Summary mary c Y 2012 Municipal Appropriations in Town Managers budget, stating that there were two line items yet to be finalized by the Finance Committee tonight: 1 the Town Managers budget and 2 the school Department budget. Jonathan Leavitt of 3 Par Three court, introduced himself to the Committee, and asked how the 3.2% increase in the 2012 budget will be covered. Joyce Mason replied that the town is using $1.5 2