All right. Good evening. Welcome to the Air Town of Air Finance Committee meeting on Thursday, April 16th at 6:00 p.m. This is a hybrid meeting. Um, this
meeting of the finance committee will be held in person at the location provided on this notice. Members of the public are welcome to attend this meeting in person. Please note that while an option for remote attendance and/or participation via Zoom is being provided as a courtesy to the public, the meeting
hearing will not be suspended or terminated if technological problems interrupt the virtual broadcast unless otherwise required by law. Members of the public with particular interest in a specific item on the agenda should make plans for inperson versus virtual
attendance accordingly. This meeting will be live on Zoom. The public may access the proceedings by joining Zoom meeting ID 978-772-822 or by calling 9292056099. For additional information about remote participation, please contact Carly
Anenelis, assistant town manager atmirair.mma. us or 97877282 extension 100. Prior to the meeting, I'd like to call the meeting to order. Um the first item on the agenda is the review and approval of previous meeting
minutes. Um we don't have those on this evening. Uh so we will be reviewing those at uh our next meeting. Um, the next item is the review of the Nshoba Valley Technical High School budget, the
Massachusetts education funding formula. Andrew, do I are you going to give us the background on this? >> We're going to jump straight in the background. >> Okay. >> As best as I can. >> Uh, I didn't finish this till 2 hours ago, and it's the extent of my knowledge. So, be kind.
>> Well, you know more infinitely more than we do right now. So, >> yes. few years. >> So, uh, cuz you scoped it as the NHoba Valley Tech High School, I had to add all the chapter 70 stuff and the local stuff. So, me and Chad GBT had a nice
time. Um, okay. So the the kind of like overview is what you end up with is the town's uh
uh required local contribution which is RLC. Can I just just inter interject for the audience at large? So this is uh we're looking at this because um as part of the overall budget we have the line items for the Earl Air Shirley Regional
High School District and then a separate item for the Nova Valley Technical High School budget. Um so we looked at those uh earlier this year and they're in the budget for the town meeting and um on the Nshoba Valley Technical High School
budget how the portion charged to air is calculated. We had some questions on and Mr. Celely is going to answer those questions. >> That's also true for the regional school district which I touch on a little bit. >> Oh, okay.
So, the whole point is that this formula figures out how much the town has to contribute as a minimum towards the school's budget. That's a four. >> Okay, >> that's not a ceiling. And you'll see that later. Um, and it's essentially the
local minimum contribution factored in by the MRGF, which is the municipal revenue growth factor, which was like the thing everyone was kind of like, what the heck is this thing? Um, and there's the appendix is longer than the actual presentation. Um, how that
gets calculated and then that gets added to the school um, assessment for the town as a floor as I said. All right. So, chapter 70 is
still somewhat of a mystery to me, but the it's kind of like the aid you get plus the minimum contribution, which is in this this bottom left line here, right, is the required net spending that you have to. So, the the state mandates
a minimum level of spending for schools. So, you can't just like give the schools no money and short change for all the kids. Um, and you'll see later on that we pay extra. So, you start with the previous year's
RLC multiply by the revenue, the MRGF. We're just going to use acronyms now. Uh, which is essentially just comes out of percentage, right? So, it's one plus the growth factor, which is classic percentage increase. Um and then
there's a um like a safety check so you compare it and then it's the lesser of the combined yield or 82 and a half% of the foundation in the I'm not quite sure what the foundation is at this point. Um, and you'll see in the MRGF, which I
will amend but won't show, is one of the old spreadsheets actually breaks down every subcategory, which I also kind of broke down into here. And there's like circuit breakers and factors, and there's like multi-year averaging and all this kind of stuff. So, like a single good year can't ruin you, or
single bad year also means you still have to pay more. Um, and then they you adjust it with the whatever safety factors and then the for the Nshoboa Valley Tech, it's then broken down by town. Um, their
budget is then broken down by town. Um, so you can see my my text is a little off. So the right so the chapter 70 right which is the state aid plus the minimum assessment is your 100% of your minimum
spend then that goes to the the aortionment part right which is how they break it up and then it's kind of um so article four right on our warrant is the valley tax so our portion is the
1.1 million but there's also a portion in the um Air Shirley Regional School District that also has the municipal revenue growth factor and the minimum spend in it which is which is a little bit later. Um
and then they add other things on top like debt and all that stuff is not included in the minimum spend. So, um, this is the Air Shirley Regional School District cuz they break it out. Um, which is interesting,
right? So, that big teal chunk there is the required local contribution, which is 11 million. And then the there's an extra 3 million put on top of that. So, that's like extra operating costs and
whatever. Then they also break it out by transportation and then debt. So you can see of the total 16 million we are technically only required to pay 11.28. So it's like when everyone's kind of like this is the part I don't like when
everyone waves their hand like oh but the growth factor and all these other complicated equations like well if you break it out which they do for us is um there's definitely some room to to wiggle. I forgot what the NSS stand for. >> I know. I don't remember.
>> Okay. >> I did this two hours ago and I still can't remember. >> That that part is is what? >> That's just like extra >> fat. That's operating costs. That's >> okay. >> A lot of services. >> Okay. >> Right. So, if it it's the takes about
what 144 million >> less the other two things to operate the school as is. >> Yeah. >> And the only required part is the 11.28. >> Yeah. But the thing is that the school would probably say that they cannot operate with that, right? >> Yeah, that could be true, right?
>> They probably will have to cut out or something, right? >> That's right. >> Okay, that's a question. >> Yeah. >> So, are you saying that the uh municipal growth factor only impacts the green portion? >> That's right.
>> Okay. >> And who determines that, Minister? >> Oh, we're going to get there. >> Okay. That's the most interesting part. That's the most interesting part. So with the show valley tech, right, it's slightly different. Um, and you can it can move differently from the growth
factors. The growth factor can go up as it did as it does every year essentially, but last year our valley requirement went down mainly because students we had fewer students. >> Yeah. >> So it looks like a huge increase this year, but that's just because we have more students and the costs went up,
right? So it's not totally insane. Um, and that's all I really want to say about that. Um, I don't want to talk about that either. So, the municipal revenue growth factor,
it has three inputs, right? So, one is property tax levy growth, which has two components to it. One is in the formula from what I can remember they essentially take your existing tax levy and automatically apply two and a
half% to it which is really annoying >> cuz we are trying not to see that right we are usually trying to be you know >> and it has a secondary factor of new growth so that's like new construction or any of that kind of stuff that gets added in there too. So that that can
also bump that line up. General revenue sharing is how much state aid you get contributes to your municipal revenue growth factor. So >> gets added on top >> that's added on top. >> Wow. >> And then other >> so more state aid you get more the
growth factor that >> which means that the town will have to contribute more. >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> Is the growth factor relative to this or last year's fiscal year? >> Yes. You take whatever it was last year and it all gets multiplied. It never it
can go down mind you >> cancome can be a negative number >> theoretically. >> Yeah. And then other receipts which I thought was actually one of the most interesting was huge for air I think a couple years ago and that's like excise
tax that's uh meals tax that's any of that stuff and like the amount of excise tax that airs it's all published is like a lot of money really. So that also affects it. Um, and this kind of just
talks about what it doesn't include, right? So it doesn't include um debt, like onetime revenues, um, and anything like an an override. It doesn't include if you override. Um, so
you can see I kind of put an input there, right? the previous year's levy with the 2 and 12% is what they assume which I I thought was probably one of the other most interesting things. They just assume you're going to tax your levy as most as much as you can, which
kind of feels like Jyn was saying that we don't we try very hard to not have to do that. And it >> eventually this right it's a percentage increase. So eventually it will outpace everything else that we do, right? Cuz year-over-year increase is a nonlinear
sort of growth. >> And and here's a question. So the estimated levy limit because air doesn't tax to the limit. That's right. >> So, is the state's calculation
using our levy limit or what we tax at times 2.5%. >> It is what you could tax at. >> So, it is the limit, right? They're using >> Yeah, they're using their actual limit.
So they're saying, "Well, gee, since you're not getting enough by you could, if you wanted to, >> we could levy whatever two and a half%, which is however many millions this year, right? And like we're going to be at like 1.6% or something, right?" But they're like, "Well, you could do 2 and 1/2, so here's your two and a half for
this year." >> So, so I'm doing and being efficient or it's out actually counterproductive. >> Well, I mean, it doesn't it it definitely helps you in the long run, right? is your ultimate levy is your percentage increase is less from all the all the next years, right?
>> But it it is somewhat of a of a frustrating scenario. >> So I was saying that the school is really getting more money than it deserves. >> No, this is just how the formula works. >> Okay. But the formula seems like it's giving the school more money than
>> it's more of just what moves the needle, >> right? And we're overspending the minimum contribution anyway. So this actually has no no real bearing on any of it, right? Especially for this regional school district. It's just more of like how are these things calculated? >> Yeah.
>> And I think what sort of put it on the radar this year was that >> with what we have six towns that contribute to the show of tech. >> No, more than that eight. Yeah. But our portion of that >> went up. Usually I think that even
>> taking account that like we have more kids going there. Oh, we have fewer this year. >> Yeah, it's it's more but it was also affected by this these calculations that >> so the increase is more than you can justify by the number of increase
additional number of kids that that go >> that's that 26% >> okay >> was mainly due to kids. >> Okay. If you have more kids going there then you pay more. That seemed to be >> Yeah. Yeah, that's definitely true. But it it costs more per kid per year now.
>> Okay. Yeah. >> Right. As a minimum contribution. >> Um >> but that's true probably across the board, right? >> Wow. >> Cost more per kid everywhere, not just in the the the vocational school, but in the regional school district too, right?
>> Yeah. Other towns. >> Yeah. In other towns too, right? But in a both the the a shorty school and the vocational school are costing uh the cost is more per pupil. >> We should we should do a a phase two of this. Well, I'll pull up the spreadsheet
>> from the last couple of years. >> Okay. >> And we can go through it because that is the most telling. It's a lot of tab flipping, but it's kind and like trying to figure out how it works. And I'll I'll attach it to this. I had to go back to like the 2015 spreadsheet where they actually broke out the formulas in Excel
because it's an Excel sheet and now it's a um it's a scripted Excel sheet so you can't see any of the hidden stuff. >> Um but if you go back far enough you can and the formula hasn't really changed. So um so like I was saying like the
parking speeding fines all that stuff is included in extra revenues. So >> um >> so you mean the having all this the town having all this extra revenue the me tax the parking >> revenue all those actually make us
have to pay more towards the school. >> Sure. But it's >> this formula makes sense. >> Yeah. But it's one of those things where like if you're going to get taxed more if you're going to get taxed in general, right? It's like would you rather make a million dollars and still pay tax? It's like well of course you would.
>> Yeah. Right. >> Yeah. >> Like you got to pay this is like the state tax, right? Of like that you're getting less aid because you're contributing more because the whole thing is like it's a zero sum, right? So your your >> your budget or contribution there is
your your state aid plus your minimum contribution is 100% >> what you need to contribute. Yeah. >> So essentially like your portion goes up and the states portion goes down eventually to the point where you will no longer get state aid like
>> so if you are extremely wealthy like you the town gets a lot of revenue from other sources the state will stop giving you money. >> I I will um I didn't I remember looking at them the amount of like revenue some
towns have is like shocking. >> Yeah. Like Boston is obviously in the billions, but like Newton, right? You know, they're wealthy, but you didn't think there was like that much revenue in there, and it's like insane. So, I have to see like if they how much aid they actually get. >> Do they get less proportionally? >> I mean, they definitely get less
proportionally. >> I see. >> Um, so >> this is the socialist common the socialist commonwealth of Massachusetts. >> That's right. So, so if we take into account again just as far as the
municipal growth factor goes and trying to sort of understand it >> and we've all seen >> $700,000 houses go up in town and sale prices on houses at a million dollars. So if you
just figure like the um like the urban crawl sort of right like y >> as people move it's right it's we're like right on that cusp where people are coming into town and driving up prices
essentially almost even more than maybe the regular market possibly >> which is going to >> for sure and like they're building Stratton Hill near me which is 34 duplexes is right. They're they're building Lincoln Hills now, which is however many units they're putting in.
>> I haven't heard anything about that. >> They're putting more uh more condos in down here, >> right? And they're there's they're shoehorning in stuff everywhere. >> Mhm. >> And it's it's not I I personally don't have a problem with that, but the it is contributing a big factor to this. Like
the new growth in in air over the last 5 years has been crazy. >> Wow. So, >> so we should expect to get receive less stay in the next few years. >> Yeah. Right. Because now that's part of your base tax levy. >> But it's more people to pay the levy,
right? That's the other thing, right? Is you those are real growth numbers. So you do have more people paying taxes. So presumably >> maybe you could even depending on how much it goes up, the proportion per person could actually technically go down. >> Yeah. Because especially if they are
people like you who don't have kids then then >> Yeah. >> So they don't kind of tax the school system but they contribute to tax. >> Yeah. Well is the senior center was always saying that the the fastest growing community is the over 60
community or whatever right there. >> So we've got lots of people paying for school without people using it. How does student population affect this or does it? >> I don't think it does. >> It's purely an economic indicator.
>> Okay. >> Not fairly certain. >> Just wondering if >> um >> does a dollar per capita is a factor? >> I don't think so. I You're have to shoot from memory. We'll do a phase two. Yeah. >> We'll go through a spreadsheet.
>> Yeah. because the once you figure it out, it was like actually relatively interesting. And like I I didn't bring my my original presentation I sent around via email which you can attach. Um which was a little broke it down even
more. Um this is like more of the broad view that we could ship out to people that had like movement questions. Um >> but I don't like especially in a town growing like hair. I know like what was
it? Grten saw housing decline prices decline last year, >> right? So >> like this housing stock decline or the price >> Yeah, the prices were going down. So I thought that was >> tax.
>> Well, I mean they've been doing two and a half over like all the local towns been doing two and a half overrides, right? >> Finally rejected. Well, and in general around this area, house prices have generally been flat for a couple years. Not that there's been no movement, but essentially fairly flat for a couple
years. >> Yeah. But at some point, like if you're that if you're right, houses is how you pay taxes, right? So if the the amount you can levy decreases, your your house assessment will then
have to go down, right? So, and that's how you get the negative factor, right? So, and no new growth, but it seems like with all the new developments coming online over the next three years, we won't have uh any problems there.
Um, and then right and if your state aid goes up, then your your contribution also goes up. So, I think that's fine. Anyway, that was it. So the state uh will determine this growth factor for
each town, right? Each town has a different growth factor. >> That's right. And they're all available. >> So if you go to the state's website, which I can then find a link and publish, >> but I it was really hard. >> So the thing is that there must be a
group of people at the state government that would decide all these factors for each individual town. It's a formula >> and okay a formula but the thing is that everything had to add up right so that the state only has this pool of money to
allocate right so then how much it will give to each town in the end kind of like had to add up and and and meet the pool of money that they have. So, so, so if the um
are there instances where the state end up not being able to give out all the money or or give out too much and then not have enough? >> I think I think Yeah, that I feel like they have to massage. Well, the thing that got me was when um
Janet from CPC came and she was saying the declining state match would be like another the first thing that came to mind of like that's like the first thing they're cutting and giving away to other >> other things, right?
>> Like those those like tertiary programs. Um I think right Massachusetts whole thing is uh education right that's like our export so I don't think there's any any risk there but says they're going to
start taxing paint so they're this is a thing like there's I can't remember the name of the bill in the state senate or whatever but it's proposing to tax paint. Have you heard about this? I thought you might have. paint. I can't remember what the other
ones were. It's just like the that they came up with >> paint for wall paint or like a What kind of paint? >> I don't even tax inside sales tax. >> Yeah, this is like >> that sounds like a lawsuit we have. >> I wow. >> This is what happened back in, you know,
17, you know, 70 or 1760 when they passed the >> representation. We do have that. That's That's what we're celebrating on Monday, Black Patriots Day. >> Yeah. Yeah, >> that's right. Anyway, so that was it. We'll do we'll do a phase two. We can
add that for the future topics for future meetings. We can do a phase two for we can do it at our next meeting. We will have probably have nothing to talk about. >> Well, well, that was actually the next item on our agenda, which is discuss topics for church here for future meetings. >> We can do a round two.
>> Okay. Yeah, that's you dive into the the actual formula, >> flip through the tabs. >> Yeah. Do you want to give us some homework so that we can come better prepared? >> I'll I'll send you all the link and you can look at it ahead of time. >> I probably won't. >> Oh, well, thank you very much for
putting this together and I know it was >> I have to send it to you and Robert to put it on the website. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because that was just doing I mean Dr. Pigeon's presentation again. I was looking at her like, "Oh, the budget only went up 4% overall." And then when it kind of came to our
portion, it was like, "Oh, no, it it's going up 26%." And that was >> Yeah. Well, they have like they they do put in the like it's a rolling average of the last three years for a lot of things. >> Um, and you can look >> if you look at the actual formula, it'll show you
>> what what the true values were. And and then there's like uh there's some ones where it's like last three or four last five years like pick two lowest and average those and then pick two highest and average those and then average that and it's like I don't who came out who came up with this?
>> I was who came up with all this, you know? >> I mean it's the like you it's takes out the outliers, right? The whole point is they're trying to like smooth the curve. >> Yeah. >> Which I I'm not against. It's just um >> it's interesting, right? I'm not saying
it's right or wrong. It's probably right, but it's interesting. >> Um, well then, uh, so actually I'm we have the last three items on the agenda. Discuss topics for future meetings, town reminder about town meeting, and
schedule next meeting. So, um, let let's just do the meetings. Get that out of the way. >> There's no public. >> Oh, there's Oh, and yeah, there's no public input at this. Okay. Um, so our next meeting would be if we do this
>> wait month. >> Yeah. Well, yeah, that was so would be May 7th and May 21st. >> I vote the 21st here next month. >> I Yeah. Oh, >> is May 7th a a a se
>> Well, we're gonna have town meeting and then like May 7th's like a week or something. >> Yeah, our default meetings are first and third Thursdays of the month. That's our default. >> Yeah. Seems I have a my chorus has a rehearsal that night. So, I had to >> We're proposing we don't do the 7th.
>> Yeah. Exactly. Thank you very much. >> Yeah. Yeah. Because we've got town meeting on the 20th. All right. So, our next meeting will be May 21st. And we want you want to >> I'll do phase two. >> All right. So, phase two. >> Keep it short and sweet. >> MRGF. >> But what's the date? May
>> 21st. Thursday, May 21st. >> Okay. And then we'll talk about June at that point, too. Uh, let's see. Then on Monday, April 27th, >> you and I you and I will sit up on
stage. >> Eric, you going to the meeting? I will be there. Yeah. >> Okay. I will >> I keep forgetting to bring water. I think >> I don't think there's anything contentious. >> No, I haven't looked at the zoning stuff either.
>> The the only zoning thing is sign bylaw. So, it doesn't have anything to do with housing or the MTA >> windows are now signs or something. >> Yeah, there there's a couple things I think. One is the height requirement or
something and the other is yes what you can put on slash window >> is I >> what what window this is in the middle >> businesses >> yeah you can't use a business window as a sign or something >> right but but it
>> just sign like >> for businesses >> oh you mean they cannot put their sign on their window the certain size is that >> there there's a I don't know I don't know the specifics I Don't explain it, Tom. >> I get knowledge from my wife.
>> Um, like, you know, there's they're sort of like antiquated and they pertained in a way to the way signs used to be done or you would put them on your window or whatever and now they're different and so >> Okay. Okay. >> You want to be able to allow
>> for most of us who don't have businesses downtown, it doesn't make any difference, right? >> That's right. >> Okay. trying to figure out what I have >> is even in town. >> No, but my business is my address, home address is listed. If you go to secretary of states, you know, like
every year when I had to file my um >> to prove that my business still exists, I use my home address. >> I'd like to make a motion to adjourn. >> Okay. Second. Okay. All those in favor? I >> I the meeting is ajourned.