Maybe I am a fussbudget. Nonetheless, I do not understand why the Selectboard can’t be more forthcoming in its Town Meeting slide presentation. Specifically, I am referring to the slides for the Town budget and for Article 7. Voters deserve transparency.
A presentation is scheduled for February 14 and again, at the pre-Town Meeting.
Budget
Above is Slide number 5 from Selectboard’s presentation. I am not sure this statement – “maintaining current services while accounting for the coming year’s high inflation rate” – is an accurate representation of the budget before voters. I also think the presentation fails to mention the percent increase in municipal taxes.
My comments are based on the budget in the January 12 packet.
Maintaining current services
I don’t know whether current services are maintained in this budget. I assume so. However, as far as far as I can tell, this budget is not a level-service operating budget. I count at least six new initiatives in this budget. They include: a Regional Energy Coordinator (previously a separate article), adding a part-time Zoning Administrator, funding for police body cameras, funding for a police vehicle, cell phones for certain department heads, and a new line item named “Legal” funded at $90,000.
There may be others. But, sadly, there is no narrative explaining to voters the significant additions to or changes in the budget.
Accounting for high inflation
As for inflation, its impact on this budget is not apparent to me. The COLA for wages looks back five-years, under the union contract. Health insurance premiums decreased from last year.
Moreover, the DPW is the biggest user in town of materials, gasoline and outside services, items likely to be hit hard by inflation. And operating Tracy Hall is part of the DPW budget. So guess how much the DPW budget increased this year. If you guessed 5%, you would be wrong. The DPW budget DECREASED by over 3%.
I do not discount the fact of inflation. How did it drive the increases in this budget? I don’t know.
6% tax increase?
How much are my taxes going to go up? That is not mentioned in the slide presentation. My best estimate is that the municipal tax rate will increase by about 6%. However, spending increases by only 3.85%, including the other monetary articles.
I base the 6% on the revenue projections in the December 22, 2021 Selectboard packet at page 115. By my math, that increase was 6.3%. However, the total revenue raised was nearly $28,000 more.
Article 7
Article 7 represents a sea change on how accumulated budget surpluses are spent. At present, those surpluses, referred to as the “unrestricted fund balance,” can only be used with the approval of voters on a case-by-case basis.
Article 7 shifts that authority for a good portion of that money from the voters to the Selectboard. Although there is a purpose statement, it is broad. Uses include “other unforeseen circumstances.” That is an amorphous term that might include any expenditure not in the current operating budget. Indeed, Town Manager Rod Francis suggested that as a possible interpretation to fund the police study. In my view, Article 7 has the potential to be a $800,000 slush fund.
However, the narrative in the Town Meeting slide presentation does not mention the shift in control from voters to Selectboard. Instead, slide 16 portrays the issue as a housekeeping measure.
The narrative reads as if the Selectboard is simply asking voters to approve a separate bank account. No shift in control from voters is mentioned. Slide 17 is no better.
To further muddy the waters, the slide presentation mentions the Master Financial Policy regarding those unrestricted funds, as if that policy controlled. But it does not. That part of the Master Financial Policy needs voter approval, which the Selectboard is seeking under Article 7. In addition, counsel for the Town advised as much on January 3, 2022. “It is important to remember that ‘surplus’ funds belong to the taxpayers and should be maintained and expended in the manner authorized by the voters.”
This is not new advice. Selectboard members Arnold, Brochu and Layton participated in an over a hour discussion that featured this issue at the Selectboard meeting on July 10, 2019, as seen on CATV.
Why the soft sell to voters now? I don’t know
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As always, Chris, good job here in helping many of us to have a better sense of what’s going on at Tracy Hall. Keep up the great work.
Thank you.
Thanks Chris I am glad you look into these items and attempt to explain them to the voters. Please keep up the good work of trying to keep the SB
transparent!
#monashuniversity #liedonapplication
Transparency and communication left the barn long ago with our SB and municipal policy makers.
Thank you, Chris, for your efforts to keep us up to date about town business.
I hope municipal taxes are not increased until AFTER the next town-wide reappraisal. I suspect the many Norwich properties sold over the last two years for significantly more than they are currently assessed may negate the need to raise additional revenue.