2005-Annual Town Report - Laserfiche WebLink

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Importantly though, it showed that the methodology Report of the and assumptions used to calculate the project tax rate Finance Committee were essentially correct. Hopefully, the Finance Committee report, including projecting a tax rate, added to the residents' understanding of the budget To the Honorable Members of the Board of process and issues, so each could make amore Selectmen and the Citizens of the Town of Mashpee: informed decision when asked to vote on the budget. In 2005, Finance Committee was pleased to pre- sent as part of the May Annual Town Meeting Warrant Not only did the new Charter require the Finance booklet, its first attempt at compliance with the Committee to evaluate the financial warrants before Mashpee Charter requirement to provide the voters Town Meeting, but also it required the committee to with a concise and readable financial report describ- make its recommendation on all Warrants included on ing the revenues and consolidated expenses" as part of the Town Meeting agenda. This second requirement the Fiscal Year's municipal operating budget. was accomplished at the October Special Town Meeting at which the FinCom made its written sum- In addition to a one page summary of the operat- mary and recommendation to the voters on all 33 ing expenses and other back-up explanations and Warrant Articles before them. tables, the financial impact of the budget on the resi- dents was provided by the FinCom through the esti- Both of these initial reports were well received mation of the resultant property tax rate to support the by the residents. In fact, the "Mashpee Enterprise" first time this informa- Published a very favorable editorial on the FinCom's proposed budget. This was the tion had ever been provided as part of the budget dis- cussions. The members of the Finance Committee look If the budget was approved as presented,the pro- forward to improving on its efforts for the 2006 Town jected tax rate provided for May Town Meeting was Meetings. $6.59/$1,000 of property assessment,or an increase of Respectfully submitted, $0.10/$1,000 from the FY '05 rate. In December, when the actual tax rate was struck by the Tax Gerald J. Umina, Chairman Assessor, the final rate turned out to be $6.34/$1,000, Desiree Hendricks-Moreno, Vice Chairman or a$0.15/$1,000 decrease from the prior year's rate. Christopher Avis The $0.25 difference between the projected and final Charles E. Gasior tax rate was directly attributable to a 6.75%increase in Robert HutchinsonKenneth Patrick the town's total of assessments versus the anticipated 3% increase used to calculate the projected tax rate. Y i y i j 21