it is we here we go thank you um as I was for the benefit of the recording we're discussing the budget um and the uh the forecast that's coming up on December 10th um the issues we're facing are pretty significant um the largest driver of these uh in terms of shared costs is Group Health um you may remember last year we had an increase in group health of around 10% in terms of costs wherever possible we tried to
scrub that budget and you know realize savings from positions that were you know thinking about try trying to think about how many people were coming on board versus how many we're leaving trying to wherever possible you know get actual numbers in there and um you know account for savings we're able to do that and scrub the budget but as always that's a that's a trick that yields diminishing returns because now our numbers are very accurate and very close to the Bone and we can't really do that
again we had hoped this year to see a decrease in increases in health but the continued postco environment is just brutal um so whereas we had been hoping for something between six and 8% uh what we have been told to expect is a 12% increase um in health care costs um and while that's not set in stone usually our Prov our consultant who works on this with us as part of the group
health um initiative um is usually right um and so um when you factor in that every percentage point is what roughly $400,000 $377,000 um we're looking at a pretty significant hole in the budget and that is also then you factor in on top of that the increased cost in utilities inflation is slowed but it hasn't it hasn't reversed um so prices are still going up they're just not going up quite as fast um we are hoping that fuel costs
will be flat this year but is not going down for example um and we just see an increase in you know the cost of resources you can see it when we go out to bid you know when we first allocated arpa dollars to do some of the um electrification of town buildings we said oh we've got enough money to do the senior center and the health department and now the entirety of that budget has to go to the senior center and it may not be enough that's just how fast prices
have risen um and and so we are left now with a pretty significant hole and that is going to have an impact on both town and school operations as we had in FY 26 right now the projected Town budget is around $1.3 million um so if you can imagine that from the school's perspective again we don't have a firm number on the schools side but I would imagine it would be more than that um and we're going to need to think really
creatively about how to um tighten our belts really uh as we move through this process um and this fiscal year um one of the things that is going to be discussed at the select board's meeting on in December is the creation of um what we're going to call a working group for revenues and expenditures and that is intended to be a broader version of an override study committee right an attempt to
you know Ensure reassure the public that we have taken every step that we can to rightsize the budget you know project revenues in a fiscally prudent and responsible way control expenses in a fiscally prudent and responsible way and then see at the end of that if there is a need to seek additional um support from the taxpayers over and above what we're limited by by prop two and a half but that solves that potentially solves an FY 27 problem it does not solve an
FY 26 problem um and so what we're looking at in FY 26 is a very lean year um we will know what the governor's budget is um in early February um we are anticipating that that will be flat um that we are not going to see any meaningful increase in what the state is providing us and that even if there was you know at the end of the day remember what we look for what the state gives us in that regard is what we look
for in two forms the unrestricted General government Aid AA and then Chapter 70 for the schools both of those sources of money flow through the split so we treat those you know uh we treat those equally when it comes to you know how they flow into the overall Revenue side of the budget but what that means as a practical matter is the kind of jockeying between the governor and then both houses of the legislature tend to result in an increase usually you know a fairly large increase in Chapter 70 they start
at a low dollar L value per pupil there's an outcry about it everyone complains how unfair the formula is for um minimum a communities the number goes up um but at the end of the day what we actually see in terms of the net benefit to our budget is not is often not even enough to really you know move off of the house Ways and Means budget and use the actual numbers um because the benefit to the budget is
at minimal you know it's maybe six fig you know in the 100 100,000 I think this year it was like $130 $140,000 all in and then when you factor in the assessments that we are then charged from the county from the NBTA from kind of all over the place um it often is a wash um so um I think Melissa put it well you know we are running out of rabbits to pull out of hats um we have done our best U we have scrubbed our revenues I know that was a subject of discussion last at the town meeting
in May are we under projecting revenues the answer to that question is one no and two even if we even if we thought we were um we took a real hard look at those numbers this year at this this fall internally we scrubbed them we made we we brought them up where we thought we could bring bring them up really up to the Limit knowing that you know those revenues over and above what's projected are the things that fund the capital budget um borrow you know pushing that to the absolute limit of where we think
we could get we're still in the red um so I don't want us to have Illusions as we move into budget season that this is a time for um expansion uh this really is a time for us to Think Through um you know maintenance and survival um until we get through the fiscal year and are able to go back to the public and see whether or not there is an appetite um for additional sources of revenue elsewhere um I want to
stop there um before we start talking about shared services which is one way we can start to try and defay these costs where possible um there is some low hanging fruit there but I want to just see if there are questions from members of the partnership on where we are here and kind of where we go and I see am Bernard I'll let you call on folks I see Helen's hand is up uh Helen yeah I need to fix my computer thank you
for this very depressing news yeah in terms of revenues I I hear you know the costs going up in terms of um Group Health Etc though we tend to always overestimate what that has been um and it's usually comes in at less but I I don't want to deal with it maybe a couple percentage points one way or the other my question is more in the last I'd say the last five years
we've had double digit free cash every year and so how are we adjusting that to help us with this deficit that's a great question um and I'll let M and Charlie follow on to this but the kind of Topline answer to that is those those numbers have really been aberration right we've had two years of every year prior to that we've been in the band for what the state recommends we be at for free cash which is between three and 5% of total um revenues the last two years have been
funky um and the reasons for that are we've gotten more um we've gotten more in for building permits we've had a couple of big building permits come in we had a um we had a um release um from the um overlay account um the assessor overlay account because a big fight with the utility companies was finally settled in our favor they agreed to the right to the valuation there and the
money we were saving being an escrow for that in the event that that we lost that fight was able to be released um and then our investments you know if you look at your own portfolio you can yeah you know V we H we hit that bounce and then we you know and there too you know it's funny people complain about arpa driving inflation we put our arpa dollars that we weren't spending into the market and the rates the rates of return we got on that we're Gang Busters um be but now we're spending that money that money's gone um or and the proc
rapidly flying out the door um so I I anticipate I I don't want to speak for treasury you know they're in the process now of working through this where we should have a preliminary free cash number fingers and toes crossed by December 10th when we we go out there I think even if it is higher than 5% it won't be like last year's and if it is then we need to I agree we need to have a conversation about where we are in revenues but we're already having that conversation we're already bumping revenues
for the coming fiscal year we're bumping it where we can for example Hotel um motor vehicle excise but you got to remember too we're losing cannabis we're losing you know there's there's there's downward pressure there too um so it's not all good news new construction does that figure into we have we have pretty robust we're we're we have I would say Rosy New Growth projections um not unreasonable New Growth
projections but we've you know we basically told treasury take a second look you know where you know where where do we think New Growth really is here don't don't lowball it um don't you know don't don't make up a number either but get us to a number where we think we're going to be on the money this year um and that's where we are okay Dennis yeah um Chaz uh did you give an estimate for
the disconnect um and I just it was so long ago that it already went out of my brain or did you just sort of hint that there was going to be one but you didn't give us the magnitude uh 1.3 million on the town side okay thank thank you yeah um and I let me say two that's 1.3 million on the towns side before the single largest line item on our budget hits which is sanitation um the biggest shift this year um for us is that we are uh we intend to take sanitation private
um um and the rationale for that is several fold one Staffing um we're not able to consistently staff sanitation anymore um we're at the point where we would be likely to need emergency contracts anyway two we're at a point where our recycling contracts with cassella are expiring and we need to bid those out anyway so when we went out to bid what we said to the community what we said was to the potential biders give us your give us your best bid for everything you know come back to us and
say how much is it going to cost for Allin to do trash and everything how much is it going to cost to do just what we have now which is recycling you know give us that broken out and what we've determined is no matter what we do it's going to be expensive it's going to be more expensive than it is now but given the pressures on Staffing um and the the real concern that we have that we might not be able to field full crws of sanitation workers in the coming year um it's now or never and terms
of privatizing it we are bargaining that obviously with asme we don't anticipate layoffs there we anticipate the positions being eliminated but we hope to move people out of those positions into other positions that's been our that's been our you know public statement on that front um we don't want to see people losing their jobs there um but you know we want to offer them open positions elsewhere in DPW um but when you factor that in that's going to be a pretty significant bump you know even though we are taking that this point
seven I believe nine sorry nine uh full-time employees off the books um were still increasing costs overall because of the cost of the contract I would say that even if we were keeping those 9 ftes on the books and keeping on doing what we were doing now it would still cost us more money so the ultimate deficit number is going to be higher um than 1.3 okay thank you um I do then want to flag on on sanitation um that because of those
costs those increased costs and because of where we are on this um we are going to propose on the townside um something that we did the last time this issue came around um which is um given that the entirety of the revenue that we would realize from this would go back into providing the service we are going to recommend that any increase in fees be reallocated to the program rather than
going through the split um um that was something that happened last time we raised sanitation fees uh we did that to balance the budget to account for the increased cost in Services as well as the other unforeseen expenses in the FY 24 budget that was the budget that was unbalanced by the jlmc decision for the police department um and um but this time around it really is almost it is entirely about Sanitation Services we do anticipate
there needs to be a raise in the rates um they have not gone up in two years um so those numbers are likely to go up I don't have a firm percentage by of how much I will say that you know percentage bases always look high but then when you actually look at the cost per cart um it's not an unreasonable cost um it's just that the way we do things having it broken out as instead of as part of your taxes um you know can cause some some uh concern on residents
so we don't want to create sticker shock there either um but we do want to just be mindful of the fact that the current sanitation costs on a yearly basis um are not unreasonable uh and a raise is not unreasonable but you know that that money does come out of people's pockets and we want to be mindful of that so um and we want that money to go back into the service that's being provided so in order to finance sanitation that's likely one of the things that we
will be proposing um is realizing those that that money entirely back into the DPW sanitation uh budget any other questions hands up okay want to move on to shared services or sure yeah that's okay did I hear someone speak up apparently not okay um this brings me to shared services um
I know we have had what I would say our hypothetical conversations over the past you know basically since I've been here um you know September of 22 about how can we increase efficiency in our operations whether that is through shared services you know identifying room for efficiencies and so forth um and I think that's going to shift by virtue of necessity uh into something that needs to happen uh in order to balance our budgets this year um um
I think the areas where we see the greatest opportunity and the lowest you know uh sort of cost uh in terms of operations because of what's already being done um are things like legal services and payroll um and so I do want to flag for this group that we are having internal discussions staff to staff on these issues uh and we are
hoping to you know make progress on this but as we look at FY 26 I really do think it's going to shift from a it would be nice to do this to we're going to have to do this um in order to save money um to shift uh to consolidate um our operations and things like payroll and legal services um so that we are bringing those costs down um and seeing realizing savings on both the school
committee side and the select board side um but I do want to just be clear that um that's not we're not what we're not talking about is a full consolidation or re-evaluation of services across the board for one thing we don't have time um between now and when the budget needs to become operational in June and two I think there are just too many outstanding questions but these are questions that need to be referred and talked to as part of this revenue
and um uh expenditures um working group that's going to be set up um so the items that we've kind of talked about and gone back and forth over about the building department you know plant management um you know the um uh the mou with wreck you know wreck services and the duplicate of any duplicate of services there um wherever possible um identifying opportunities for efficiency it being another space um we're going to
need to take hard look at that and I think having a dedicated group working on that as part of towards a stated goal with a stated deadline will hopefully give us some momentum on that whereas I think before we've been kind of spinning our Wheels um I'll pause there um just say you know again the Top Line there is for FY 26 the two areas where I think we are hopeful that we can find some consensus are in consolidating some legal services and Payroll Services uh and then for the other items that we've historically discussed
we need to put those on the table as part of the charge to this revenue and um uh expenditures um working group Ellen you have your hands up yeah um you know certainly I want to try and save money wherever we can and payroll does seem like a a place where we might be able to but it to the best of my recollection when we tried to do
that Melissa maybe you remember there were problems and I'm not sure what the cause of the problems were but it didn't work for some reason and Susan you're shaking your head yes maybe you can tell us a little bit more about so just so that we if we do go down this road that we can work those out or not go down the road I mean yeah it was never truly Consolidated so a position shifted over but it never really the function never
really shifted so um that's why it never worked because it it really wasn't implemented so um that that that's the issue yeah I I think on our end our payroll is starting to work better than it ever has and I don't think there's a whole lot of interest in um making a shift there uh away from having our own in-house staff uh who understand our contract and have relationships with the people that are here and mass teachers retirement and all
of the other requirements that are that are uh quite a bit different than they are in the town side that that having people with the expertise to attend to those uh areas is is really important so again more yeah again it's not not a f complete it's not you know just an area no the first I'm hearing of it so oh I'm sorry but yeah that there was an interest in US
consolidating last year I was pretty clear that that wasn't an area we were um we weren't interested in going in that direction um at this time okay anyone else I do see Carolyn's got her hand raised oh Carolyn I see you uh please use the um hand raise uh where is it I looked for it should be down
at the bottom under react I think ah okay got it because otherwise I really don't see your your hands being raised unless unless your uh is right on my screen Carolyn oh you weren't raising your hand you were she can't unmute oh Charlie can you now un mute all
right one at a time try it now Carolyn thank you um thank you for all this Chaz just going back to the working group that you're thinking about um is that are you conceiving that as staff or would that be community members as well that's I would say it's almost entirely community members in this tradition of Prior override working groups um you know the last over working group I think worked
very well together and we'll take that kind of as a base um and talk through it with the select board and the advisory committee and make sure that everyone's in agreement um on membership and roles and responsibilities don't want it to be too big don't want it to be too small it's going to have a pretty firm deadline in terms of when it when its work needs to complete which is by the end of next summer um so we just need to work backwards from there and make sure that all the relevant stakeholders are included so last time it was on the staff end it was really the
select Board office and the superintendent's office you know we we worked on you know yeah and and you know from there um community members uh were the you know we weren't even the voting members right we were just Staffing the committee uh the committee sorry the working group and the working group was you know working through the questions to try and figure out where we were thank you I see Harry's hand is up oh
Harry you have to raise your hand so that you're okay it is it it actually is um okay sorry that's okay um Chaz on the sanitation I know that or I believe that some of the sanitation employees are used to shovel snow if they stay employees that's fine is any of the equipment that we use for picking up garbage used for snow uh snow removal some of it yes uh and we'll be we'll you know we're still in the process of
talking with DPW about how that's going to work in the long run you know are we selling that equipment are we maintaining it for some you know for for purposes of snow removal um but um you know are we working with the contractor the who will eventually be contracting on that um I can get you more details on the specifics of that um but yes we we are aware of the issues um that come up with snow management which is also why you know Highway and sanitation the highway
sanitation division is a is a I would I would call a flexible division um you know the team is capable of Performing many roles they have to be capable of Performing many roles so the loss of the FTE in the sanitation division should not impact snow removal services that is a critical goal here okay thank you okay I don't see any other hands and Susan giv to everyone thank you for sharing oh so Susan given
has left yep thank you any other questions so again if you know if payroll is not a not an option I'm you know we just need to keep looking we need to keep thinking through uh and we will continue to discuss staff to staff again I don't want it to be in a situation where we make a good situation bad but I also want to be mindful of the fact that on both sides we're not in a situation we're not we're not you know we're not in the black here um
we've got to we've got to find savings okay uh with that concluding those concluding remarks unless someone has anything else let's end the meeting thank you all we will be back in touch after the um we're trying to schedule something after the forecast um to follow up uh on the um agenda items there the working group um and talk through um just our continued efforts as we get into budget season for FY 26
thank you thank you thank you CH sorry everyone