or we usually move those out and these are so these are things that only can are can only be they're reserved for appropriation only can be be at a town meeting vote. Uh the and the last thing we have is just other don revenue and donations. These are things people want to donate to. We I have to set up a
special account if somebody's donating to for land maintenance or or things like that. anything for any purpose that's a donation account, we have to have them set each account set up specifically for those donations and that's how the um
they can use the revenue and we have the same thing with the ATF that's donation account transportation student activities and things like that. So, just quickly just um really there's not a lot to report because we're only really into the early stage of the fiscal year, but I will continue to
monitor doing that. Okay. Thank you, darlene. Um, our next uh item on the agenda this evening is a presentation by Dr. Denise Pigeon from October Valley Technical Schools on the budget development process and capital needs.
>> Thank you. And um I just want to say thank you for the invitation to come here this evening. I know I I share this with you each year, but um this really is a great kickoff meeting, and I appreciate how informative, helpful, and collaborative the meeting has been over the years. Um I always like to start by
just grounding us in a little bit about our our mission and membership. As you know, we are your regional vocational technical school partner. Um we have eight member towns and we basically work together to be able to pro provide a variety of technical training programs
to the students in our region. In terms of our offerings, um, they have not changed since last year. We have the same the same offerings. The same trends are are also still true as they were last year. Construction continues to be booming with 47% of our students enrolled in either a construction or
transportation program. Um, about 30% of our students in health and services and 22% in arts and technology. In terms of our preliminary district enrollment, um I just have to say Paul is amazing at um being able to to look
at our enrollment and start to make projections. We we converse when October one comes around and I'm always amazed by how quickly he can run the numbers of percentages of our enrollment. So enrollment continues to be strong at Nshobate. Our 10-year enrollment trends, you can see fairly stable over the last
couple of years. Um 769 district students, which is up by five from last year. uh we currently do not have space for post-graduates and um with ongoing application trends I don't foresee that that that would be changing moving into the the next year
in terms of how that works itself out by town um again some of our towns have increasing enrollment other towns have slightly decreasing enrollment for the town of Chelmsford it looks like uh the town will be up by six students overall um Chsford continues to be the largest
member sending district um followed second by PEPO. Again, a trend that is is pretty stable from yearover-year. Um the enrollment change for Chelmsford is up slightly. Percentage is up just a little bit. It's at 28.09%
up from last year at 27.49%. In terms of um as we're planning our budget budget considerations um our contracts for our teachers are settled through June of 27. Our um paraprofessionals, professional support
staff, custodians, and calf are settled through June of 28. Our transportation, we're looking at potentially exercising an extension year in that contract. And we will be having to go out to bid for HVAC support contract. So, we're in the in the preliminary phases of working through those items for our budget
planning for next year. Um, I'm sure we'll hear more about this in the coming slides, but we're all looking carefully at the uncertainty with state and federal funds as we move forward in this budget year, and we're all looking forward towards um how we're going to manage student needs and related staffing and support needs in the
current climate. Um, health insurance increases are a concern in a lot of places. We're we're watching this closely. And for Nohobitech capital expenses is something that we are also watching very closely and carefully. Um capital projects that are underway.
It has been a wonderful kickoff to our school year. Um cosmetology renovation and I had to put it in italics is finally complete. This was a very long project. Um but it is done and I thank the the members who are here today that were able to come to our ribbon cutting and celebrate with our students. It
really was wonderful. Um, our vet assisting and electrical expansion is in its final stages. Um, hope to complete in the next couple of months. That was a state grant funded project. We did complete the phase three of our fire suppression system upgrades and we're
currently gearing up to go out to bid for phase four. As you may recall, um, several years ago, I was sharing with this group that we have to do a full renovation of our entire building, which is a very large facility. we've broken it up into stages to manage the cost and
manage the project. So, that continues. Um, and we've also just recently had an opportunity to repaint all of our hallways. So, the students are really loving that. Um, thinking ahead for capital, we continue to have a lot of high needs um for our building. As you know, it was
built in the 60s, but we have done a great job managing it over the years. Um, we do need to finish the fire suppression project. We also have some other large capital items that we had deferred last year, which was the replacement of several of our minibuses for our fleet. We have some exterior
doors that need attention. U one section of our roof needs to be replaced and our boilers are at the end of their useful life. We also have some parking lot and curbing repairs that we need to address. And HVAC in general, I know that for the last couple of years, you've been hearing me talk about HVAC and how are
we going to tackle this big project. Um happy to share that um we did find out just a couple of weeks ago that we have been invited into the schematic design um phase for a potential HVAC project to convert to heat pumps. So we just
received this notification. Um I personally am happy that the timing of this is as we had hoped. So, as you may recall, we have a very large piece of debt from our major project in 2004 2005 that will be coming off the books. Um, looking to potentially time this this
very large project um with that with that changeover in the debt. So, again, our goal and this is what we've been discussing at our committee level meetings is to try to keep that assessment as level as possible between the debt and capital expenses. Um so more to come on that um in the in
the coming months. In terms of anticipated and future savings, um as you know, we continue to be very aggressive with our competitive grant applications. On um October 10th, we were notified of an additional grant award from the state. Um 399 just about
399,000 for carpentry and ECC. What's nice about this grant is that um one of the pieces of equipment that we'll be able to replace is the dust collection system for our carpentry program, which is a enormous piece of equipment and a very expensive piece of equipment that's
been carried on our capital plan that we'll be able to address through this grant. So, we're very happy about that. Um and uh just last week or actually about a week and a half ago at this point, we submitted another um very large grant application with the hopes that if if awarded this grant, we would
have the ability to move forward with adding two additional technical programs that are in high need and high demand. And that is an HVAC program and a a property maintenance facility facility maintenance program. So, we're hoping um
and we should know hopefully in January if that's something that might happen for Ashobetch and that was a a $5 billion grant application. Um we also continue to partner in-house with our technical programs to keep the capital moving. Um they do a great job for us
and um we couldn't do it without them. In terms of the budget, it's um we have kicked off our budget season. Our budget message has gone out. Our staff are already actively filling out their budget workbooks. Um we'll be collecting those for the for the next couple of
weeks and and going through internal review in November and December. Finalizing at the committee level in um December into early January. Hosting our budget breakfast likely the last week of January, first week of February timed around the release of the
governor's uh numbers. And um we're anticipating our public hearing this year will be on Tuesday, February 10th, which as you know um we have to pro provide this process 45 days in advance of our first town meeting and we're anticipating that that meeting would be
in Westford on March 28th. So a lot of exciting things happening at NHobate. I thank you for your support and happy to answer any questions you may have. Would would those programs in HBAC require an addition to the school or or
expansion be similar to what was >> Great question. So, um if the big idea goes through, we are looking to actually renovate a space in our building that was the old diesel shop that's currently right now used as facilities. We house things in there for facilities. So, we
would renovate that to become HVAC. Um and then we're looking to potentially rebuild. We have an old building on the property that could use a tear down and rebuild. So, we would use the same footprint, but replace that building to possibly house facility management. So,
not really an expansion of footprint, just a renovation and expansion of usable instructional space. >> And you said that would get granted in January. If that did occur, would those programs be offered to students in 28 or when? >> Yeah, it would be about probably a one and a half to a two-year process to get
them off the ground. >> Okay. And a final question to just thoughts that you're presenting. >> Your building was built in the 60s >> in this area. Is that one of the oldest technical schools in terms of you know because I know Monty Tech's been I'm sorry. Um
>> Minute Man's been reconstructed. I know there's plans to build the the one in in the HAL and so forth. Is you're sort of up there in terms of >> we're in we are in the same bracket in terms of age. But what I will say I can't take credit for this. It was long before I came. But that major renovation
that was done between 200 um 3 and 2005 was a complete in and total like gut renovation which is what I think is made the building last as long as it has and we've continued to keep it up to the best of our ability. So we are not we are not in a place where we're looking for a new building but we do have some
pieces of our building that need some some major renovation and that is that HVAC project which is something we've been talking a lot about for several years. the full HVAC project is pretty extensive in in the size of our building. Um that's why this accelerated repair project is something we're so
excited about um potentially partnering. So again um you know what we're hoping is that as in the next year we'll have to complete the fire suppression project. So our capital expenses will go up but our debt will be going down. And then next year
if the new debt is coming on, the new debt would come on and the capital would be going down so that we can continue to balance that out. So um I think that we've been addressing it um proactively and with these additional grants we have gone from program to program to program
renovating inside out. Um so I think we're going to keep going for quite some time. >> Any other questions or comments for Dr. Pigeon? Seeing none, we'll move on to our next agenda item, and that is a presentation by our school superintendent, Dr. Jay
Lane, uh, updating on the budgetary status for the current current fiscal year and outlook for FY27. Thanks, Pat. And, uh, welcome everyone tonight. Um, as we typically do, just going to run through, um, current fiscal 26 budget, um, the year that we're in,
uh, now. Um fortunately last spring we actually uh settled all of our collective bargaining agreements with our unions that had contracts that were up June 30th. So um that actually helped us as far as setting the current budget and certainly helps us with the outlook for the future years. The only group
that is um going to be is already out of cycle is our building custodians. We have nine building custodians, so it's a very small unit that happen to have their contract up this June 30th. So after the first of the year, I'm sure we'll begin negotiating with them. Um but all of the other major employee unions are settled. So that was
certainly um um helpful for the current year and also helps us when we do our projections for fiscal 27. All of our fiscal 26 accounts, both our personnel and non-personnel accounts are in good shape. We have no concerns with the budget at this point in time. Our grants and revolving funds for 26 are also in
good shape. Um obviously we're watching federally what's happening with the funds, but we haven't been impacted uh at all yet. So, we'll keep an eye on that, but we're full steam ahead with the allocations that we've been receiving from uh from the federal government as well as the states. And uh we're actually in the process already
preparing our fiscal 27 budget. So, our individual meetings with schools and departments um are underway. Um, one of the things that's actually interesting for us and I think this is a trend that we're going to see for the next number of years, but um, our enrollment projections certainly um, uh,
projected enrollment increase and uh, we are certainly starting to see that a little bit um, this year. We're actually up 60 students overall. Um, and this is a projection that's going to continue over the next um, you know, 7 to 10 years. um our overall district enrollment is projected to go up
somewhere between um conservatively 550 to 700 or so uh students. So we have 60 new kids in the district um this year. Um we'll produce a report for the school committee at the first meeting in December that actually just shows how that affects our class size and where the kids are distributed through the
district. Um but that's a pretty significant jump for us in uh in one year. So, um, just wanted to highlight that for you so you can kind of see where it is for us. And we've been looking at this. You'll see, um, actually our increase in preK population. So, that's our CHIPS
population in really at the elementary school level is where we're going to see this start to, uh, kind of come through the system. So, obviously, we're not going to be talking about this tonight, but we start talking a little bit about school building projects and things like this. this is the group that would be projected to hit that middle school
grade level when um hopefully our school building project would be coming online. So, I just wanted to share that with you. And then um year to year, we also we always kind of take a look at our uh comparables um just to kind of show kind of where we're at both um spending wise
and staffing wise and performance-wise with districts. Um again, for historical perspective, we don't make this up. Um, Desi actually identifies who our top um districts are uh comparabilitywise and this is based on um enrollment uh grade
level configuration of buildings um our special education population, our English language learner population. Um so they actually identify our top 10 districts. Um we're waiting to see if there's going to be any updates to this because we are meeting a little bit earlier this year than we traditionally do. So if there are any fluctuations
between now and December, I'd certainly let you know. Um but our 10 districts remained uh consistent right now from uh last year. Um what I did on these slides, so you'll see when it comes to per pupil um spending um we are in the uh bottom third and you'll see this
pretty consistently across the districts when it comes to spending and staffing levels. Um you know we're certainly u when it comes to our comps not spending uh too much money. Um we're in the lower third only Ashland actually spends a little bit less than us. And on the next slide, what I tried to do because sometimes we talk about this, these are
our kind of Marramac Valley districts because people will say, well, where do we fall in with the Marramac Valley, even though, you know, obviously LOL isn't a comp for us because of the size and one could argue like a Tinkro might not be or Drake because of the size. Um, in gray, we actually just indicated in
district spending. Um, so we're truly not spending uh too much per per child in the uh in the district. Um we have traditionally also taken a look at uh student teacher ratios and uh the department's doing it a little bit uh differently this year. Instead of actually looking at individual student teacher ratios you would see you know
previously so many to one um they're actually just looking at the total um headcount of teachers and dividing it by 100 students to come up with a count. So it was just a little bit different way of doing it. The results honestly don't um differ. And um on this one, I think it also kind of just tells me we're
certainly not overstaffed when it comes to our teaching staff in the district. Um we're tied with North Andover at the um basically the lowest um number of staff uh to uh students of any of our comparable districts. And a relatively same story when it looks at uh the other
um just surrounding districts, the Marramck Valley. Um obviously we're tied still with North Andover and Borick and Drake have a slightly um less teachers per hundred students than we do in Chelford. Um big big takeaway on this one. Again, we're we're certainly um not over spending and we're also obviously
not overstaffed. Um average teacher salary is something we've actually been working on. So this is all of these slides are FY24 data. Um we did actually when we did our last round of negotiations with the teachers um recognize that this is an area we're trying to make some advancements with as
far as average salaries go. Um but based on our 24 data again we're in the bottom third of uh spending. So I think if someone objectively looks at this you'd also say we're not spending too much teacher in the in the district. And this also holds true when you're looking at our comparable communities um just
adjoining in the Marramac Valley. on the next slide. Uh again, we're in the bottom third of districts with regard to average teacher salaries here as well. Um next slide. Again, we're in the middle of the pack. So, this is net school
spending is the the amount of money that districts spend um on education that they're required to spend. Um obviously, 100% is the minimum target and then most districts spend in excess of that. So you'll see we're right in the middle of the pack with regard to um actual
percentage over. So we're at 30% over based on the 24 data. There are five districts that spend more and there are five districts that spend less. So we're right in the in the middle on this spending. Uh pretty similar also when you add in our other Marramac Valley districts. Um we're in the middle of the
pack with regard to spending over the net school spending amount. And as much as we take a look at obviously our staffing and how much we pay for teachers and how many teachers we actually have um and sometimes we are towards the bottom of the bottom third on this performance-wise u we truly do
outperform um academically uh our our peers. So even based on our um our 10 most comparable districts and again this is looking at 2024 MCCAST data across the board um we were right behind Newton uh when it came to 10th grade students
meeting or exceeding uh performance on the uh 10th grade ELA MCCAST which is excellent. Um when you take a look on the next slide uh and you actually add in our surrounding times the Marmarmac Valley um again this is where Westford kind of jumps in but we're in the top third of uh districts on this slide
which I'm very proud of. Uh and the next slide takes a look at our math performance. Um our math performance on the 2020 for MCCAST. Again this is our 10th grade kids. uh we finished um behind Newton and a point behind um Andover, but again in the top third
performance-wise on that MCCAST math test and again certainly in the top third when it comes to even looking at uh geographically our Marramac Valley partners. So while we may not spend the most or uh you know pay the most for salaries or have as many staff as some of the other districts do performance-wise um you know we're
certainly getting a good bang for our buck and our kids and uh our teachers really do perform at incredible levels. Um I thank them for everything that they do to make the schools as as positive an experience for our students and families as they do. Um and this slide just takes
a look um this is actually pretty consistent with year-over-year. So last year we were also in a starting out in a level service um budget scenario. We're looking at about $2.6 million to just have a level service budget over last year's when it comes to staffing. So you
have our colar increases that were negotiated in our contracts last year. We have our traditional step increases that have previously been negotiated. So, you have your steps and lanes factored in. Um, we have some incentives for lane changes. That's for individuals who maybe get an advanced degree. They
get a differential for that. And we have some early retirement incentives. I'll have to tell you, we actually have not had a significant number of retirees. Um, our staff are very uh stable. I think last year we had nine um out of 475ish uh teachers. So, we've got a very
um stable and dedicated staff here in the district. And then we actually have some relatively nominal in the scheme of things. Um non-wage related increases for next year. Um we have transportation contracts for our regular red and special ed students already in place. Those have small increases in the per
day per bus uh rates. Um we're projecting an increase in out of district tuition and these rates are actually set by the state. We don't set these rates. the operational services division for the state sets these rates. Um so at this point in time that's the factor that we have in for our current
students who are in out of district placements. We're increasing again a modest increase for uh utilities. Um and we had a few smaller uh contracted services with regard to our build building cleaning and whatnot that came in just under $30,000 in total. So, um,
all in about $3.5 million is what's required for a level school, um, sorry, a level service budget, um, with regard to the Chip public schools. So, that's our starting point. Thanks, Paul. >> Okay. Any, uh, questions or comments for
Dr. Lang? Seeing none, we'll move to our next agenda item, which is uh, the town manager's initial fiscal year 2027 budget discussion. and then I'll turn it over to Paul Cohen. >> Yeah. Thank you, Pat. Good evening, everyone. And first off, I just want to
thank you for your time this evening. This is an earlier start than we have ever taken before. Um, and I think it's probably we're not going to leave here tonight with solutions, but I my sense was in and first addressing the select board is I think we need to get started
earlier so that we have more time to consider some things and to weigh some things and ultimately decide some things. Every year we say it that it's like a you know how can it be more challenging and how can it be more extraordinary but let's acknowledge the fact this is an
extraordinary time. Um you you know we're we're dealing with a lot of things uh and it's always been tough. I mean we've always you know we've always known that we're always on that that that edge but I mean you can't help but you know it goes dayto day now it seems. I mean,
look, look what's happening in Washington today, you know, or the state house today. You know, nobody knows what's happening in terms of where things are going. And so, we're here tonight trying to talk about a budget that's going to start in seven months and and conclude in 19 months from from
today, roughly, you know, July 1 of 26 through June 30th of 27, which is why it's called the 20 fiscal year 27 budget. Um, and it's easy to look back and say, "Oh, you know, gee, you should have known that, could have known that." But I don't know how we can possibly, as
was said earlier, we don't know what's going on with federal funding, right? We believe that as of the last 24 hours, that apparently there's a deal to reopen the federal government and some agreements regarding veterans funding and and SNAP benefits and and
agricultural subsidies, but nothing else seems to have been resolved. And you know, it it's just an extraordinary time. Um, we also don't know really what's going at the state level. You know, we we open up the newspaper or or the tablet or computer and then we see
the governor's offering incentives for people to retire early. Uh, but yet no announced plan. It was sort of like, well, you know, because the unions kind of leaked out this idea that you get a $20,000 if you retired early and res resigned, but yet there was no in early retirement incentive to to motivate
people to actually do that because given the the challenging economic times, you know, how can somebody retire early? What are they going to go to if if there's no retirement incentive? Because we know people are doing what they're calling now job hugging, right? Nobody's
moving and they're home hugging as well. nobody can afford to move out of their current house. And yet, if you went back 18 months ago, you know, it was a labor shortage in terms of, you know, you couldn't get applicants, qualified applicants for positions. So, goodness
knows where we're going to be. But what we do know is we have to move forward and we have to proceed. Um, and we also know that a year from now there'll be a bianual election of state officials, including the governor's office as as well as, you know, Congress. and so
forth. So, it's an extraordinary time. Also, what makes this and tonight, you know, what makes this also challenging is, you know, the town is sort of, you know, still assembling the last pieces of its fiscal year 26 budget because we just wrapped up a five-year revail
schedule. And I'm going to ask John Sus, our finance director, to just give us a status report because I know there's a hearing next Monday night in the select board on tax classification and so forth. John just want to just overall what the assessors been doing for the last year and and where things are in terms of you know growth and everything
else. >> Yeah. So the assessors have been very busy this past this past year, past few months. Um they've been doing a total reval of all uh commercial industrial all residential property. Um they're also required to go out each year and
capture all of the new growth that takes place in the community. So that's typically that's new construction that could be additions to existing structures uh things things of that nature and um they've been very you know doing a lot of work in that area and just recently
they received um you know approval from the mass do for the work on new growth and that's going to come in somewhere around 2.2 2 million. Um, so, you know, it gives us some it gives us a good base to work from as we develop the FY27
budget because we kind of know where the numbers are going to numbers are going to shake out. And, um, one one concern that we see, and again, this isn't so much an assessor function, is um, when you get beyond, you know, many of you as you drive around town, you have seen um there's a distribution center on Route
129 that's been being constructed all summer long. Um there's a preschool right here on North Road that's being constructed. Um you had a large residential multif family development at 255 Princeton Street that wrapped up
this year, but beyond that, we don't see a lot of new developments going on. There may be some smaller things coming. We'll know more as we get into the fiscal year. just to give everyone a sense of where we are. When you get beyond those projects, we don't see a lot of um new new development being
presented uh to the community development office. >> Thank you, John. So, again, we're we're we're just wrapping up and mean when this report was presented last week, we hadn't had closure on the new growth or the um you know, or the final approval of the valuations of property. But
towards that, I'm going to put Sam on the spot as our chief assessor because a week from tonight, he's going to be presenting to the select board. But Sam, just give a sense of terms of where things are in terms of the appreciation of residential values, commercial values and and and sort of where where things
are headed at this point in time. Okay. Well, if we uh some of you may remember last year, we were a little surprised at the flatness of the appreciation. Uh we had an overall uh appreciation of all real property and personal property in town of 1.9% which was we thought was
kind of low. But when we uh checked with our uh colleagues in in adjoining towns uh we found that they were finding the same thing. So we felt very sure about that. And then of course the do certifies the values. So that was right. This year uh I have to say I I was a
little surprised at the value appreciation that we showed. So we're showing this year about an 8.9% uh appreciation overall for the entire residential class. that breaks down single family condos and so forth. So
there are different values there and there are different reasons for why some of those numbers are high but the thing that really shocked me was the commercial property appreciation uh which is showing it close to 9%. Okay.
And again, uh this is a uh this is a certification year and the department of revenue uh takes its time and uh as Paul indicated they came in last Friday and they validated uh these numbers. So we feel very confident in that. But um
I think the reason for say for the anomaly uh between last year and this year you have to remember that the market data that we used lags anywhere from two to three years behind the actual peg date for the fiscal year of
27. So, for example, um this past uh uh for this particular period that we'll be talking to the select board about on Monday night, the uh sales evaluation period is from March
2023 through January of 2025, which is which is extended. The do doesn't really like you to go much beyond 16 months, but because of the way the sales either occur or don't occur, you have to grab enough sales to validate the model. In
the case of residential, it has to be a minimum of 2%. So, you know, we had that extended period, the farther you get away uh from the actual date that you're trying to peg to, you could argue that maybe the results are less reliable. But
everybody else is in the same boat. As long as we all use the same standard, it's it's it's okay. Um, so you have to remember, uh, a year ago, back up two years, we were coming off of COVID. Okay? Some of that had to do with the
lower values and so forth. Since then, we've we've recovered some. Okay? So, that could explain some of the difference in the valuations. um going forward um I've been talking to our consultant uh uh appraisal uh
consultant and uh they're saying that pretty much following what the town manager and the and the treasurer have said they see flatness going forward. So we we're not going to probably see that kind of value appreciation uh in the in the uh in the out years
after this coming fiscal year. we'll see that level off some reflecting the market uncertainty as as you've talked about. So does does that answer the question? >> Yeah, thank you Sam. just it just gives a helpful insight because you know again we'll be stepping into that next week and it gives a sense and I'll come back
to the valuation and the growth shortly in my presentation the immediate challenge that's in front of us and not just us but you know it's kind of part of the reason the federal government shut down is this whole concern over health insurance premiums
>> and payments. Um we we we are in an extraordinary time of of health care in this country uh in terms of cost and and also extraordinary in terms of breakthrough technologies
and science and achievements and that that comes in terms of a cost. Um and what we're seeing now you know we came off of last year at an 18.8% increase in premiums. Uh and then we're forecasting at this point, we just
received our latest data through September. Our premiums are are and healthcare costs are matching our premiums, which is not a good sign. You're really supposed to be around 87 to 90% because you got administrative and other costs. You know, we're funded
as again a lag of a 24month cycle because we're we're we're funded on our actual costs. Um so the best information that we have given the trends is we're probably looking at a 13% increase in premiums for the upcoming fiscal year.
Um and the budget will actually increase probably about 14% because we also have increase in enrollment and retirees. Um that's you know that's ex extraordinary and I'll get into more detail moving forward. Um and if you want to think of
that issue in a in reality is it it's There's a couple of factors and I'll get into them later on, but if you if it's not only happened in in human health care, have you ever have you ever taken a dog to a vet recently >> today?
>> Yeah. Right. Exactly. and you know you and and you're seeing some of the same trends and I'll touch upon it later what's going on in that industry because that's an industry that's not heavily insured or subsidized and you just see the gross the cost escalation as well as the concentration in and venture
investments venture capital investments in in what's transforming that industry and that's an indic you know it's a reality check um but again this is part of a systemic problem that really occurred coming out of the pandemic where we had an extraordin extordinary
period of high inflation which today isn't even at the Fed's guideline of what they hope to be 2%. You know, we you've got the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates uh in two successive uh meetings when inflation is still running 3% or above. Um because they're now
concerned about the the recessionary impacts of what's going on. Um and then you obviously see a disgruntled electorate as you may have seen by the election a week ago. Whatever your political view of that is, it clearly indicates that there's an unsettlness
out there. Um the problem that we have as a community is it's overwhelming our ability to raise revenue to maintain level or essential services because unlike the private sector whether it's your veterary clinic or your
HVAC technician whatever we just can't go in and say oh well here's our here's our new rates and our minimum cost and oh by the way we're adding a fuel search charge and some of the other things that they do to do that. we're constrained by Proposition two and a half um which funds you know over threequarters of our
revenue and that's capped at two and a half percent and so that's that's simple story and we'll talk a little bit later about what we have to do moving forward u regardless of of what we decide in the short term um because unlike the federal
government we can't we can't operate at a deficit you know by cities and towns in Massachusetts. And again, I'm speaking only to the room, but those watching, you know, we're we we're are subdivisions of the Commonwealth and we're bound by state law. And much of
what we do is is is regulated and certified and approved by the state. The uh Sam Chase, our chief uh chair of the assessor, spoke earlier. The state certifies our property values. We just don't get to say, "Well, here's your property values. Go do it." We can't issue a a real tax bill that gets mailed
at the end of next month until the state approves the values, approves the assessor's determination of new growth in the community, approves the select board's tax classification, and then gives us tax rate approval, including our local revenue estimates and so forth, which includes all the
certifications that Darlene, our town accountant, submits from the town clerk about what happened at our town meetings. So, we can't run at a deficit. you know, we, you know, we also don't have a revenue base that's sort of less visible to the taxpayer. You know,
people complain about the property tax because they see it every quarter and and they and it's it's a real bill. That's that's more painful than if you have your withholdings and therefore your salary goes up, they're still taking your withholdings. You kind of don't see it. And the state also sort of gave themselves a relief valve with this
fair share or millionaires tax which they're kind of using to supplement some of the chapter 70 funding we saw and some of the other initiatives like free school lunch and so forth. So the state and the and the states really their revenue growth has all been in capital gains and in the
fair share tax. If you went back if if they didn't have that if you went to their baseline revenues and if you read their reports they're basically running flat flat. uh and that's like sales tax, you know, and so forth. Um so that's that's the challenge that we
have and and again this is not new to Chamford. Um but it's it it's it's now catching up to us because the inflationary aspects and and that's just when we talk 3% that's normal inflation. We know there are segments of inflation such as building contractors and others,
construction costs that are running much higher. Healthcare obviously running higher than inflation and in fact the problem is is even if you look at what true living index is which is really not the the bundle of goods and services that CPI but what what some
economists say this is what the typical resident lives upon that's running higher than 3%. You know because that bundle of goods that they use for CPI isn't really a traditional bundle of goods that a that a regular resident would would um would draw upon. Um, and
so why why I say that is is because the people that we serve are being squeezed as well. You know, whether it's how much it's going to cost them to have their driveway plowed this winter or, you know, what what's it costing them when they go to the supermarket um to get a bag of groceries and everything else.
And you know, and we see the physical signs of this when we leave the town offices, you know, several nights a week and see the lines at the food pantry, uh, and and the attendance at the at the table of plenty and and and and other aspects of our lives. Um, what I will
point out is, and I put in the presentation, I've cited a few times, the Mass Municipal Association, you know, teamed with Tus University and did a an analysis of the pressures on cities and towns. And I encourage you to look up this report or read it. I say a few times and they were they were actually
kind of surprised by some of the outcomes and I'll touch upon that um because you know we this the summary is the state really has been hasn't been the full fair partner to cities and towns that we had seen them being
historically. Um so that's that's going to be a challenge in the future. Um, so again, as Jay noted in his presentation, we've got to be we've got to be a competitive employer um when we're when
we're when we're seeking to fill teaching positions or to maintain teaching positions or to or to attract police officers and what's now a more of a free market for police under the the the recent uh civil service reforms where you see people moving between
communities. uh or whether we're trying to fill electrician positions, you know, which took us almost a year to hire a in-house electrician in the community and so forth. Um that's challenging because again, our contracts aren't settling, nor would they be expected to
settle at 2 and a half%. But yet, that's that's sort of the the ceiling on our on our base property tax. Uh I mentioned again about the health insurance and then we also are are still in the midst of the fully funding of our pension system. Um we're in the second and final
year of a six and a half percent in Middle Sex County retirement system. We're scheduled to be funded in just over a decade fully funded. Um but again, those increases uh are running at a minimum. They're telling us of 6 and a half% into the foreseeable future. And we know when they do the two-year
actuarial that the first year coming out of it is actually above six and a half percent. Last year I think it was 8.8%. Um and then on top of this, you know, I asked the question earlier about Nshoba Tech in terms of capital. You know, we've got a backlog of capital. I know
the school committee is going to be discussing at the next meeting. The you know, capital improvement plan for school facilities. You know, we've John our capital plan committee is meeting this Thursday to to kick off discussion. But the bottom line is as as well as we've done, I mean, you know, to
maintain our buildings, they are aging and they need attention. and they need reinvestment. And the most notable one as the rains pounding o over us this evening in this room is roofs, you know, and and I'll touch upon that greater, but you know, we've got major roof projects. You've seen us go to town
meeting on a two occasions already to fund portions of the McCarthy school roof and you we'll talk about a little later on. You've got Harrington School and most notably the high school coming right up behind it. And then right behind that is fire apparatus um for ladder trucks and engines which are
another industry that's just ridiculously exploding in costs uh where you know you've got there's heck there's investigations into what's going on has gone up so much because very similar to other industries a consolidation of
providers uh and then a backlog of of time to get these and cost escalations. Um and again that's being looked at um because because of the the impact it's having on communities where you you may have read town of Westwood last week
went and forwarded the acquisition of two pieces of fire apparatus because they know it's going to take them four years before they get those fire trucks. Um and we're trying to maintain again that the replacement schedule with our fire apparatus. Um and again there's
only a few providers and you know some of us took economics classes you understand the idea of you know all agopolis and few market presence and and again it's it's it's indicative and we see it in the schools on the bus contract the shower and and and Johnson
public schools go out and bid for a bus contract there's one bidder right you know and that and that bidder controls a big segment of the market in terms of regular you know bus transportation we see the same thing with trash, right? We go to look for who's who's going to uh collect and and
transport our trash to our uh either recycling facilities. Uh just, you know, processing center or to the trash energy facility in Averil. We get there's basically three biders in the market. Um and we end up going with the low bidder and then people say, "Well, why don't
you terminate the contract?" And it's like, "Terminate for what?" And you saw that this past summer with the strike. remember all the trash building up on all the sidewalks and and people said, "Well, why aren't those cities in town? Just go to the nick go find another vendor." Well, two things. One is there weren't many other vendors to go to
because the capital investment that's required to that in the market and and the and and the second component of that is again if if you're going to go to that other vendor, the the other the other companies they wanted that company to win, right? They're not gonna, you
know, think about it. you know, a rising tide lives lifts all boats. Um, you know it's it's just a very challenging economic period where everything is getting squeezed. Um, so again, coming back to the buildings, the roofs, our other
infrastructure, our roadways, um, bridges, uh, you know, it's it it's it's just incredible what's needed to take place. Um, I'll touch upon in detail the limited growth of of our property tax. You know, John fortunately
also sits on this on the planning board as does Anita and they can tell you firsthand and better than me, but there's there there aren't lines of new projects that are lining up not only in Shamsu, but if you look at it, you know, if you've noticed your trips into Boston lately, you don't see as many cranes in
the city. You don't see the you don't reading about the projects going through the permitting process and and that's what you know and that's why you're seeing the state scramble about oh well we got to do something finally about environmental regulations and so forth because the time it takes to undertake a project and bring it to reality is just
so challenging. Um and and then again I'll touch upon the local aid. Um, so at this point based upon the preliminary assessment we have, we've got a deficit of somewhere around the neighborhood of $3 million, which on 176 million plus or
minus budget for for the upcoming fiscal year is only 1.7%. That's not bad. People say, "Oh, anybody can cut 2% of your budget. What, you know, why is that so challenging?" But the problem is is of that one, you know, 176 or so, 60 million of that is fixed. In other
words, we can't just go in and cut the amount of our benefits in insurance. Uh you can't cut your debt service. You know, we're one of of numerous communities in the showa. You know, we can't go in there and say, "This is this is what you're going to take. We hope you enjoy that because that's a that's a
regional pool and we unfortunately have seen the consequences of some of the other communities who are struggling basically having to fund it because that's that's how the system works and it's the only way it can work." and and you know and so when you really factor
that stuff out is now you're talking about $116 million. So when you start taking three million of $16 million that's about 2.6% 6% much more significant um when when you're looking at in terms of in the aggregate. Um, coming back to
the benefits and insurance, it's basically our second biggest line item aside from education. And as you can see in the highlight of them yellow, almost 22% meaning over one out of every five dollars next year will go to pay
benefits and insurance. And it, you know, meaning benefits being retirement assessment, health insurance, property building, liability, and other insurance for the community. And and I like data um because it it it sort of gives what's going on. But as you can see that number
is escalating. Not obviously because you've seen a couple things the health insurance most re recently and then a couple years back the property markets were going crazy in terms of reinsurance insurance because of all the category storms that were hitting the US and and
and global and that's settled down uh in the last year and and fortunately you know I guess we're into November now but by extraordinary means the US really didn't suffer a major hurricane. You know, think about it. You know, we had a couple storms that kind of looked like they were heading to the Carolinas and
then took off and so forth. We didn't get what Jamaica just went through. Um, and here in Massachusetts through our insurance pool, we haven't had any real significant weather related events, which our biggest damage in in in a in
our area is wind storms and and impacts of wind and so forth. You know, we're not a coastal community. You know, we're really and really Chson is not a water community. you know, we don't have significant flooding and so forth. So, the biggest damages are wind related. Uh, and you know, obviously that's
different. You go to the Cape and the islands and and some of the coastal communities, but obviously that's the big the big trend. And you can see that even from five years ago, you know, over 4% increase in the relatively in the budget is going towards benefits and insurance. And here it is about the
health insurance. Again, look at the last, you know, I think the one that jumps out at me isn't even highlighted. If you go from fiscal 24, we were funding at 4.3 million to fiscal 27, three years, it's increasing by 50%.
$7 million for for health insurance premiums, for the town share of those premiums. Um that that's unprecedented un extraordinary and and and very uh very
troubling because if as you can see highway in the bottom if our health insurance premiums had only increased by 7% this three-year period we wouldn't be talking about a deficit this evening. You know but it's just it's it's it's just extraordinary. And the problem is
it's not an anomaly. We don't hear anybody coming up with not a magic bullet but even a offramp or solutions to how to manage this the and I I'll I'll get into it a little further. What's driving our health care
costs? Well, overall medical inflation in the Northeast which isn't very much different than the country as a whole is over 9%. You know, and this is for hospital services, your diagnostic imaging, your specialty care costs, the labor shortages. You remember the nurses
shortages, the traveling nurses, the nurses strike, so forth. Obviously, wages are being pushed up. You've also got the issue of market concentration among health systems, right? Fallon no longer offers in this area. You know, Harvard Pilgrim
TUS merged. You know, Blue Cross is still standing out there. Um, your hospitals, right? all kind of, you know, you heard about the Steuart tragedy and what was going on, but you've got these physician networks now that are consolidating. So you've got this sort
of triangle of health care challenges of the in the insurers, your Blue Cross, your you know your your Harvard Pilgrim, other major insurers battling with the providers and in terms of your Mass
General Bighgams um your your physician networks and so forth. Then that's why you sort of read these things you see in the paper about oh well Blue Cross has stated that these people are no longer have access to this hospital services big one going on right now at UMass Medical Center in Blue
Cross um and it's it's just it you know the physician it's all battling and then you got the consumer let's not forget the consumer the consumer is demanding right you know they are demanding services
um be because there's assistance that can be reached, but it's costly because you now have specialty drugs and gene therapies that are effective, but they're costly. And as as they say on the slide, specialty pharmacy
covers over 50% of of pharmacy expenditures despite serving 2% of the members. Nobody wants to deny that to anybody. But it's a it's a real cost and it has to be born somewhere because, you know, if the federal government is
capping it for Medicare, well, these people are going to look for other outlets to bring in revenue, hence the private market and hence the municipal market. The issue of GLP weight loss drugs um is is to the forefront because
it is new and it's expanding dramatically. Um we we see it here's the data you see the data in Chelmswood in a period of just over two years we've gone from 29 claimments costing $95,000
to 126 claimments totaling 515,000 through September of this calendar year and the trend is still upward facing in what we're hearing in the next months is two things they're going to be coming out in an oral or pill form uh probably
early next you know late winter early spring which is going to increase utilization. You have companies in China and pharmaceutical companies acquiring other pharmaceutical companies because this is a growing segment of the market and to the point where
you know last week you know Trump RX or whatever it is going on he's basically announcing some deal that that he's that the president has cut with for blue cross I'm sorry for Medicare and Medicaid but yet we don't know the full details of does that mean that anybody on Medicare or Medicaid can have access
to lower prices. And then you see places like Costco selling these drugs for $500 when the the health plans were paying $1,200 for the same drug. I mean, it's just it's it's just uh grueling.
And the what we're now hearing is we're not sure what the state's going to do uh in terms of, you know, what are the options the town has for municipal insurance being self-insured. You know, we could go out to the private market, but they're going to say, "Well, what's your claims experience?" Here it is. That's why we're paying what we are. Or
you go to the state group insurance commission and they're dealing with the same struggles where the state had to bail them out because they're running a loss last fiscal year and then they're running a loss so far through three months of this fiscal year. And they're talking about uh eliminating the weight loss drugs
from their program. or now you're hearing talk about a management plan that if somebody were to take these drugs then over a 12-month period there'd be a plan where they would have to make other lifestyle changes. So therefore hopefully at the end of a 12-month period they they would be off
those drugs. But again the the the trials and everything are so nent that we we just don't know where that is going to be. But we do know what's what's happening in reality. When you see when you turn on your TV and you see Serena Williams injecting herself saying, "Boy, this is a lifestyle." Um I
don't I don't think anybody thought that that's what people were trying to do with the treatment of obesity that it was going to help Serena Williams. I'm sorry. Um so, you know, so and then you've just going back to the other drivers. You've got chronic disease. When people are going to the emergency
room, the cases are more serious. you know, cardiovascular disease, mental health conditions. Uh, and part of it is is because of the cost of health care, people aren't going until they absolutely have to. And then, as you know, it's that's more costly. Uh, and obviously we've got an aging demographic
and and surging mental health and behavioral demand. Coming more into issue of subscribers, our subscriber base is growing. John gathers this data based on the November census of every fiscal year because that's how we we estimate for the upcoming fiscal year.
You can see we have just about a thousand retirees. Um and we're ensuring 689 employees uh in the community and you can see those trends are are are always are always moving upward um into the into
into our system. So, here's what it means. If at a 13% increase in premiums for estimated for the upcoming fiscal year, that premium for an HMO family plan is going to be basically $40,000.
Um, and that means the town pays 75% of that or roughly uh, you know, 29 roughly $30,000, right? You know, it's pretty easy. Threequarters of 40 is 30.
Um, so it's $30,000. So when you go to add an employee, you're you're adding a $30,000 cost plus the other costs of employ benefits to the employee, Medicare and Medicare tax and other components. That's significant. Uh, and that's why you're
seeing companies going towards AI and these other things. It's because, you know, not only does the AI employee not call in sick or other issues, but, you know, they're not costing them, you know, the extraordinary amounts of benefit costs. Same thing's happening in
retiree. I obviously Medicare supplement plans are less costly, but you can see at a 13% projected increase. Um, that's on a calendar year is when the Medicare runs because they're federal tied in with medic federal program. We're looking at next a year from now probably
being over six almost over $6,300. Um, and what that means, the town's paying $3,800 for every one of those, you know, people who enroll in our retirey supplement plans. It's it's it's costly. Plus, we have retirees that are
under the age of 65 that that are that the town is paying 60% of the premium for uh who are retired, but we're carrying them as well. Um, going back to Middle Sex that we talked about earlier, the FY27 number is an actual number because they do a two-year actuarial
assessment. So, we will be writing a check next next, you know, July 1st because, as Dene noted, we we preund it because the reason if you pay it early, you get a discount um of almost $14 million to the retirement system for the
upcoming year. And that's an increase, you can see, of 860,000 or 6.57%. again much above two and a half% of the growth in the levy. In terms of employee uh history, um going back um you can see
not a lot of movement in the last five years on either the town or the school side. You know, 2% increase in five years is not material. Um but obviously, you know, the numbers have grown over the years. So again, if you go back since 2008, which was, you know, prior
to the Great Recession, which is sort of a good benchmark, you know, we're up 6.6% on the town side and 16% on the school side. Um, prior to that, that was known as the Great Recession. Um, and then you can see on staffing levels, you
know, we're pretty flat. You know, police, you know, you're roughly 70 officers looking back. fire. You can see it just static. You obviously you've heard some social media and other media accounts on the staffing levels of the
fire department. Uh you can see highway and why we use highway is the other divisions of of aside from facilities of highway are funded through enterprise self-funding funds. So this goes into the tax levy pretty much. You can see static there. Same thing you know facilities we've had to increase just
because of the conditions and projects that are going on in the facility level. library you can see flat finance flat um and the only real increase um as I said was facilities you know and and we and we do count because we we're doing full
counts you know we yes we added two people at the center for the arts um you know because that that facility is now opening obviously it didn't open it wasn't open our staff prior to that uh and then inspections is is an area as well um you know Jay has this in his
budget He talked about it earlier. You saw his teacher data level. Um so moving on to now debt service. That's not a problem. We are not as much as we've got a capital backlog. It's not
as though we've overextended oursel with debt and it's crushing our ability to fund programs. Our debt service is a percentage of the operating budget is only 6.2%. However, our non-excluded debt service is 4.6% 6% which is less than half of the guideline of 10% of general fund
revenues. Um so you know it's it's not an issue but but it is an issue because you know it's a component that has to be met. You know we've got to we're going to have to fund 11 million of debt service because it's
a legal obligation of the town for the upcoming year. Going back to the non-excluded debt service, um, as you can see that that number is increasing because we're maintaining in our capital improvement plan at 5.8% which had bumped up over previous year's
levels in order to meet the challenges that are before us, which unfortunately almost got legs kind of knocked down because of inflation. So, we're really almost treading water in terms of real investment uh adjusted for inflation uh in the upcoming year. Um, so we have to
again accounting for that and excluded debt. That's namely the fire station debt. Again, that doesn't affect our ability to fund within the levy limit, but it's going to be it's going to fall upon the um tax levy um for the two replacement fire stations when that gets
added, you know, to that uh that base in the upcoming year. and you know the finance director and I are looking at this the we're waiting for the cost estimate and the process moving forward in the bidding process and most likely we'll do that bonding in the in the year that the station is open and
operational. So that's you know that that's why you see the number growing most in in 28 because we don't foresee that station opening until 28. Um, but we do have, you know, we're sort of borrowing as we need to and doing bond participation notes to get there because
we obviously have to pay for construction and and construction services during the course of that project. As I mentioned earlier about the debt come uh the debt service major projects coming towards us here, here are the the preliminary
numbers that we've just seen as part of the capital plan. And again, as I mentioned, it's it's roofs. I mean, remember we just finished kitchens at the schools, high school, Parker and so forth, and we've we've done some investments at HVAC at the senior center and and so forth. The big thing is
roofs. Um, you know, the we we have a need because we have leaking roofs. Just like we addressed the priority at McCarthy's leaking roofs, we do have an area at the kitchen and cafeteria at the high school. The request is to do that in the upcoming fiscal year budget um
capital plan because that's an area with leaks. But then we know we're going to have to come back for another $8 million a couple years after um in 29 because the roof is at the now in what we don't know and we're doubtful is would that qualify for the accelerated repair
program that Dr. Pigeon mentioned earlier. Could we get 50%. The problem is is if the standards because the backlog is so severe on those roof and windows and boiler projects, if it's as bad as continues to be, we wouldn't hit the threshold to qualify because they
didn't fund any roofs less than 29 years old um in the most recent funding round and and the high school roof was just about 20 plus years. So that's a challenge. So the idea would be can we delay extend until we get 50%
reimbursement. But again, at some point it is may not become attainable. And then as you can see going into 30, you've got the McCarthy school roof. And then in between there, you got the Harrington Elementary School. Um, and there are other roofs. They're not even on here such as the library, the police
station. You know, they just don't have the the magnitude of numbers. And then the same thing as I mentioned earlier about fire department apparatus. You know, a ladder truck now to replace is $2.7 million. You just can't add a $2.7 million number into a $6 million capital
plan and have a viable capital plan. Um, and then behind that you've got two fire engines in 30 and 31 that have to be replaced. Um, so that's the challenge is how do you how do you fund this? Because this is not a community we can just go to the ballot and say we'll just fund
this as a debt exclusion or a capital exclusion. Um, we're going to have to find a way. And then of course the big thing behind all of this is a new Parker Middle School where less than 18 months from now there'll be town meeting votes and ballot votes to approve a project
that will won't hit our debt service till fiscal 31. Uh because same thing we're not going to tax the people on the full cost of a new school until they occupy it. So what communities do is you do a bond anticipation note. you basically are carrying your interest cost and then you permanently finance it
the town's portion because the state now at least gives you the money up front the town's portion till the school gets you know occupied which we think will be FY31 um but that's obviously in the back of a lot of people's minds because we need that school project
you know there there are issues of in of enrollment uh and and learning spaces and so forth that that are that are propelling this forward to the MSBA approval for this project as well as the ongoing efforts that are taking place with this project. And so again, those
votes will will be like I said late winter or spring of of 27. Um coming back now to the property tax revenue estimate, removing the excluded debt because again that just fluctuates, you know, it doesn't affect our ability to fund inside.
You know, again, we're we're finalizing the numbers for 26. You can see it was 2.3 million. and it came in at two under 2.3 but slightly was 2,200 and some odd thousand. Um but the thing I wanted to put up in the
slide is that the this year's growth number of 2.3, okay, or just under 23 was a full reval year. And what what that means is when the town's out there doing the five-year required examination of properties in the community in the in that fifth year
period, that fifth year, that's when you capture more stuff because you're out looking at more stuff. So with that being a reval year and with the two of the buildings at the um the 255 Princeton Street, the former UMass
West campus, having been occupied by the June 30th cutoff, all that resulted in was $2.3 million of new growth. The final building, which is going to be occupied in the next few weeks, uh in final part of that project, we're factoring that into the 27, which is the
budget that we're preparing for. We're using $1.9 million. So that means all that revenue growth from that, you know, which will probably which will be the highest assessed property in this community at probably over 80 million
>> is already baked in these numbers. And what it turns out, if when you looked at the data over those two years of new growth in value, it's about a $750,000 increase to the property tax levy, which was below the million-doll estimate that was
thrown about when the project was brought to the community for approval. But that's just the reality. Um, part of the issue, that's just the reality. And remember, I'm not getting editorialized here, that's based on your your your um
it's even though it's a we consider it a commercial project, it's considered residential construction. And as you know, as a community, we have a residential tax split of of 17% where we give a discount. So that also discounted our new growth because that was considered to be residential. I'm not
editorializing, I'm just informing you uh in terms of what happens out there. So that's in other words, and as was stated earlier by John and and talked about, we don't see anything major in the pipeline. Yeah, you're going to get a child care facility on North Road. You
know, the the condos are finished up, you know, next to the library there at the corner at Nine Actton Road. Um, you know, and and there's some minor projects that are before the planning board for a contractor's yard. And someone's talking about another daycare and so forth. Even that new building
that was built as we talked about the at the intersection of Alpha Road and Belka Road, you know, the thing with the uh you know, it now looks a little more attractive, you know, as a signing going on, but the the value of that building as a warehouse facility use is actually
less than what it replaced because office has a higher value for valuation than than a than a >> than a than a storage building. And it kind of makes sense, right? think about what what's your val you know what's your values of property you know that that's sort of why the city of Boston is
is hemorrhaging so bad is they've they've lost a lot of their grade A office space um because the vacancies and so forth but the bottom line is you know it's sometimes when you you see what's out there it's really challenging
uh into what what's coming at us so that you know again I don't being a harbinger of gloom but I'm just trying to be the reality of what's confronting us the issue of the average single family tax bill. Again, the select board will decide tax classification approximately December 1st. As I said, the hearing is
next Monday. They'll wait two weeks to get input from the community. They'll vote, schedule the vote December 1st, and then the job of the assessors and finance director and working with the accountant, everything is get those bills out by the end of December. And and what that's going to mean is the average tax bill in Chford will exceed
$9,000 for this upcoming for this for this fiscal year that we're in right now. I think again not to get into the next week's hearing, but right now if they maintain the split at 17%, it's 4.5%.
>> 4% >> 4% 4% is the increase in the average single family bill. Um again, that's 4%, right? So they sit there and say, "What's going on? The town can only raise its revenue two and a half percent, but their bills are going up 4%. It's because of the shifting
values." And again, it it's it's just a challenge there um for us as a community. Um state revenue, again, when state revenue is just two things. It's chapter 70 school aid and it's unrestricted general government aid. Um as you can see, the chapter 70 school
aid is is roughly $15.5 million. Our unrestricted general government aid is $6.3 million. Uh everything else is just you know miscellaneous in that. Looking a little more at the excuse me the chapter 70
uh you know we we we we got an adjustment in fiscal year 24 of of 18% of 2.179. As you can see now it's gone down to more you know measurable levels. This past year year that we're in now 26, we got a
5.24% that was $150 per student and that got us an in result in an increase of $770,000 for the upcoming year. Um I look I sometimes you look at data and it sometimes surprises you. I looked at well wait a minute what's your chapter
70 now versus historically and as you can see it's actually up slightly. We're chapter 70 funds about 20% of our school department operating budget. Now again, the schools operate on more than what the town's appropriation is, but based on the value of the town appropriation
versus chapter 70, we're you know, we we went from 20 years ago to 16 and 2/3 up to over 20%. um in terms of chapter 70 funding. Um but if you look at and this comes from this report that the Mass Municipal
Associan and TUS put out chapter 70 educational aid you can see it's predominantly been driven to the gateway cities that's what this chart shows you know o you know over over time and you know we we're sort of in that suburban group and the ones that are really suffering are out in western mass in the
rural areas they've really been taking it hard because they didn't have the enrollment the system was based on enrollment which is why we kept having these issues with the town Westford how they were getting more chapter 7 aid during the period when they were getting increased enrollment yet when their enrollment went down that there's no
correction. Uh but yet chsa was already at that level uh didn't happen. Here's chapter 78 per student and again it just shows you the annual change in chapter 70 per child. You can just see how the urban and gateway priorities have have just sort of
been allocated the funding compared to suburban and rural communities. Um, what why this is important is this upcoming fiscal year, it' be the last year of funding under the seven-year funding schedule of the Student Opportunities Act. The state legislature has begun
hearings to determine how they're going to allocate Chapter 70 Education Aid in subsequent fiscal years. And this is going to be a struggle because everybody needs more, especially in a period of uncertain federal funding. Um
but as we know there there's there's there's that's really where the discussion has to take place is how is this education funding going to be allocated in the future and what proportional share will come in a period right now where the state's struggling
because we no longer have the MCCAST as as sort of the regulator of performance and and so now the question is going to be how do litigants because that's how the education reform has historically been
changed over years. Go back to 93 and so forth. It was because of litigation that somebody in a community said, "My child isn't being fairly funded for education much like a child in this community, usually a wealthier community." And that's what that's what led to the
reform back in 93. And what leads to what really is an uncertain future going forward is how does the legislature allocate education aid because every child in the state deemed to have a an appropriate and equal educational opportunity. That's going to be a big me big factor.
And so the the problem is is that's not going to help us for 27. That'll probably be determined for 28. Um and given that 20, you know, 26 is an election year, we don't know when those determinations will be made, but it it
It's going to be real challenging because you know the election will be in November and then the governor's budget we do in January and it and because of a transition legislature it's going to be real interesting to see how when and how
that gets allocated. Um here here's the other thing that was interesting um from that study by TUS and the MMA is the state share of local revenue by state and you can see the gold bar in the middle is the US average and Vermont is
the far left that big green thing you know and I know Vermont's not a typical state but you can see Massachusetts is that red line. So the point of the analysis was and the other green lines are the New England states. So the the the analysis was is that Massachusetts, believe it or not, was was less than the
US average and really towards the lower quartile of revenue sharing from the state to you know to its local government. Uh which which I think just shocked a lot of people because that's not the image that we have of Massachusetts in terms of partnership
with cities and towns. Um, but yet we did see that with unrestricted general government aid and that was one of the key parts of this funding. This year's increase was 1.1%. >> 68,000.
Um, and more importantly, this chart, this is the unrestricted general government aid for all municipalities from the year 2002 to 2024. And if you adjust there for inflation with that red line that's called 2002 base, you can
see how the state is underperforming by you know 20 plus percent. Depending upon what type of community you are, you know, gateway city, suburban and so forth. So that's the issue is the partnership
and the revenue sharing that if you went back to Mike Dakus and and you know going back way back you know that's how the cities and towns survived Proposition 2 and a half in the 80s was by state revenue sharing um and then you see that's waned you
know and yes you expect to see the dips during the during the recessionary periods but even in the recovery periods and even in a period where we had the fair share tax they still funded at 1.1%. Um and and and so even when you hear things
like oh our chapter 90 I'm sorry our chapter yeah chapter 90 funding for for roads and you know gee they just funded a 50% increase from 200 million to 300 million. Yeah. But they don't tell you the rest of the story that for 12 years they did nothing. So the purchasing power of the of the 300 million today is
less than the 200 million a dozen years ago. That's that's the story. Um, and why I mention is is that's beyond this room, but these are the messages I think that have to be delivered to the governor and the legislature. Um, and obviously in a period where they're getting squeezed because they're looking
for the federal government, which is now turning off the spot to them. So, the best we can have at this point is somewhere we'll probably get about $900,000 of additional state aid. And that's being the optimist that, believe it or not, I am an optimist that
because I don't want to live any life any other way. But I'm assuming that it will get $150 per pupil funding for the upcoming fiscal year in the upcoming years. And and I base that on a couple things. One is its optimism, but two is
it is an election year. Uh and historically the legislature is a little more tuned to chapter 70 and and state aid in election cycles um as you know into those years uh because again those votes are taken in July and August and
they're going to the ballot in primary in September and an election in November. But again being an optimist there saying we can get another $150 per pupil funding that would get us about 900,000. Going back to the local receipts locally, I want to show you the
fluctuation here because again, this goes back to the idea that we're forecasting out seven months and 19 months. Um, motor vehicle excise as Dene noted, you know, we're okay right now, but we won't see the big commitment until January. What's driven that has been the inflationary impact of the
price of new new cars, right? The motor vehicle excise is based on your manufacturer suggested retail price has nothing to do with the price of used cars. So, the fact that used cars have gone ridiculously in pricing doesn't give us more um motor vehicle excise tax because it has nothing to do with the
value of your vehicle. It has to do with the manufactured suggested retail price of the year of manufacturer and then it goes down by a depreciated schedule, you know, goes 90 the year of manufacturer to 60 to, you know, down to 25. Um so that's been driven by inflation because
and and I think it's helped because most people were leasing vehicles. So they're turning over their leases if as long as they're renewing the leases, you're getting that inflationary aspect. So that's that's been strong. But licensing and permits, as as John noted earlier, there is no extraordinary licensing
period. So obviously this past year, our our revenues went down by a third. That's because in 24 was the permit for 255 in week, which is over a million dollars. Um and and and the other thing with investment income, um noted, gee, that's going to decline.
Why? Because the Fed's cutting rates >> and we have to mark to market on our investments. We know we meaning we have to we have to carry on our books what the value of those assets are. They're in Treasury bills or other secured securities. So obviously as the Fed declines rates, you're not going to earn
the interest level if you know if they cut rates by a percent and so forth. Um and that's why you saw in actual 22, how can the number be negative? How could you have negative investment income fiscal year 22? it's because John had to mark those values to their market and that was the issue with the the bond
prices were declining. So you can see the fluctuation uh and that and that's why we expect that that's going to decrease. Um the other thing with rooms excise you know the state is paying for the room occupancy for the sheltering at the
best western site on Chford Street. We are told by CTI that that is going to end next summer, which means next fiscal year. So those people are going to be relocated, we understand, to a facility in l, but that means the room excise is
going with them. Um, and yes, the new hotel where the former Rison was is is going to open. Um but I I we we clearly anticipating a decline in room excise because it's it's not as though we have a shortage of
rooms u in Chsford. You know we have the element we have the holiday express and now we'll have the um the home to suites I think the Hilton brand at the former Rison site. Um again none of those a luxury. In fact, you know what you saw
happen in Westfit? If you if you're not aware of this, the Regency is closing next month. >> Yeah. >> And and it's not because, you know, there's a there's a surplus of of of quality hotels. It's because there's more money to be made converting that site to housing and tearing it all down
than it is to run a hotel. And that's what's going to happen. You know, Westford did their MBTA zoning and they've got a project on P Road and they've got a project at the Regency. So, that's going to shut down. and Westfit's accounting for their loss of of room excise uh in and that facility
uh and and so that that's that's reality and that's what's going to you know impact us um in the upcoming year. So again some we don't see any bump in permits and licenses and we're going to see declines we expect in room excise
and investment income. Um, so again, we're we're we're looking somewhere around 850,000 in preliminary revenue estimates and then available funds, which is this other category that you see. And it's there's really not a lot there. As you can see, the dollar
amounts kind of declined, but that's really because the funding for the sewer project is declining as well. So, there's really no, you know, magic there. The sewer project debt service for the latter stage of that project came from sewer betterments. the capital improvement fund and the U sewer
construction stabilization fund. So that's why that's declining. Really what this is is this is benefit costs or we call offsets from those enterprise funds that that they provide. The town provides benefits, health insurance and such that they reimburse the the cost to
the town for that service. Um again beaten on inflation as you can see. Um, we don't have official statistics out yet through November uh because we're in November, but even through September, the data is still murky because of the government shutdown, but everything
we're seeing is still above 3%. And again, we never recaptured from that 2022 7.1%. Uh, and there's no indication that something is going to fall through in inflation the upcoming years. Um,
so I added this slide because I not for nothing but more I wanted to remind people that John talked about this at fall town meeting. So I said, I'm going to put John's slide in. I'm going to note in bold that this was John's slide at fall town meeting. And what John was trying to explain was there's a
structural imbalance that if you look at our preliminary estimates of new revenues and you looked at three major fixed cost increases, we're already in deficit, not including, you know, other town departments. And as we said that the deficit's around three million and
this only shows you about 78,000 of that for the year. Um, so this is my final slide in terms of the whole purpose of tonight is where do we go from here and why did you pull us out in November and something you could have told us in December. And the and the reason is is
we need the time I think to go back and assess and evaluate and compare and figure out what we're going to do because I didn't want to come in December and say, "Well, geez Paul, the budget's due in, you know, in two months. we don't have enough time to react or or contemplate or implement.
Um, a couple of them are longer term, as I said, the advocacy for additional state aid, um, you know, chapter 70, unrestricted general government aid, and and the unlikely but the request to increase local option meals taxes and room excise
taxes. It's very clear this legislative leadership is not supporting local revenue enhancements either at the state level or at the local level by local option and these are these are going into the dust bin of history it
appears um but that doesn't mean the requests aren't valid and next month you will hear a request from the Mass Municipal Association of can we you know here's our bundle how we're going to you know help cities and towns and it will include local option meals and rooms
taxes. Um, and and I think it's worthy, you know, of discussion, but it's not going to help us in 27. And again, it's not clear when or if or ever it will it will be implemented. Again, it's it's a small amount. You know, the state applies six,
you know, over 6% for the meal stacks and the town is about a half a percent and then, you know, they they allowed us some room excise. Um, so but I think the other thing that's not talked about and even mentioned on
there is, you know, would they modify Proposition 2 and a half to adjust it by inflation as opposed to, you know, two to two to two and a half%. And that's that's like touching the third rail. >> Uh, and you have the same results. No, it doesn't seem to be any traction
towards this because it's it's an unpopular tax because it's so visible and and it's a growing tax. You know, people's properties are appreciating. You've got people regardless of your income levels who are paying higher property tax. Um and unlike other parts
of the country, they don't allow local option income tax or other solutions. Um and and so that's you know but that's that's that's the conundrum and that's why again the need to the state saying hey look you've got to be partners here you can't acknowledge a special ed but acknowledge a special ed cost special ed
transportation cost benefits and so forth are rapidly outpacing inflation and these are big cost drivers what are you doing for us but it's real so the other thing is you then start looking internally to the town and then you start getting into the distasteful
options you know implementing license and user fee increases. The big one that we saw in Drake this past year and we saw Low do was a trash fee. I mean, all that is is an endound around Proposition 2 and a half because you don't need the voter approval and they don't get to write it off in their
taxes, but you basically say, "Oh, by the way, here's your here's your bill to collect your trash and recycling, you know, and I'm working with our public works director. We'll calculate that." Um, you know, because our job is to is to put everything out there on the table so at least people can say, "Did you
look at it and are you considering it?" Pay as you throw is even more challenging. We know Westfit is looking at Pays You Throw. Um, that's a hard one to go backwards on it, you know, because you're you're now basically saying, well, you had two barrels, but now now it's bags that you got to buy these
special color bags and and yeah, you can put them in a barrel, but they're going to be monitored by the camera and you can only throw out what's in the, you know, it it it does work, but it's not popular. Uh, and and and it is a reduction in service. We're we're we're kind of running into that even on the
bulk item thing where we're getting push back from the trash and a facility. They don't want us delivering bulk loads of furniture for safety considerations. Um so that's that's an issue of you know user fees, licensing.
Um the schools don't like user fees either. I was in this room when they voted the bus transportation fee well over a decade ago. And I was here when they implemented the, you know, the unsightly and just, you know,
gut-wrenching issue of charging kids user fees to participate in extracurricular activities and the park your car at school and all the other things. But it wasn't because those school committees, you know, were were insensitive or intolerant. It was that they were faced with two choices, bad
and worse. Um and you know so that's that's that's you know something in the mix as well. Um the other thing is do you reduce your services? You know for example we Chson is one of the few communities that collects trash at condos.
Um that's always been a a sensitive issue. We we eliminated it years several years ago for apartments. But then the question is do we join our fellow communities and say no if you've got a multif family of four or more condos i.e. Williamsburg and others you know
then you know you're you're on your own you you know not popular but it's something my job is to put out there on the table what could be done and then the select board and others decide what can be done and will be done and time leading ultimately decides what will be done and then the other thing is working
at is regional services. Um, I've been working with Chief Spence um about, you know, do could what would the financial benefit be in the long term if we were to join the regional public safety dispatch in Tuksbury that Tukbury and
Drake now share. Um, you know, it's been looked at in the past by the town, the select board in the past have turned that down. The problem, as Draket is realizing, is it only gives you a three-year benefit, and then your costs go back up to the full cost of the service, which is what Draket's now
encountering because it's at the three-year window. Uh, and they're starting to question, well, did we really save anything, you know, and so forth, and they they'll do their own analysis. But the other thing I've asked the chief to look at, well, what if we were to provide regional dispatch to a neighboring community? Um, and you know,
what would there be? And so, we actually have a meeting scheduled with the state grunt uh uh overseer of the program to see well what would would there be financial benefits because you want a win-win for all communities and we do do some sharing like we share animal control and and other services and
obviously we share regional planning with Northern Middle Sex and and clearly the best example is our regional vocational school district. Um so we're looking at that as well. Um, but at the end of the day, somewhere we're going to have to wrestle around $3 million.
Um, and that's really the the end point is by law we have to present a balanced budget. Um, we don't have a settled labor contract with the firefighters this upcoming year. We're we're in a mediation process. So, that'll have to
be backfunded for two fiscal years. um meaning the upcoming year and then the year that we're in right now. And so we we you know we we have a placeholder. We can't preund it, but we got to be mindful of the fact that that bill eventually is going to have to be paid because there will be a settlement at
some point on that contract. Uh you saw the police number earlier uh in the in the uh the number. So that's got to be there. So the the end the end result is I think it's fair to say that at this point everything's on the table. I don't
have at this point a a vision and and it needn't be my vision. It has to be our vision of how we move forward um in the short term as well as medium-term to address this um
challenge. And I thank you for listening for was a long discussion, but I I I just want to um stop here and and answer any questions that you may have. And and again, hopefully we're due to come back here in four weeks. Uh and it may not
end in four weeks. Um but it will end uh in at the the end of January, beginning of February because it has to. Um as as Dr. Pigeon noted, Westford is going to town meeting the the end of March. So the NHOBA budget will be out in, you
know, early February. Um my discussions I saw the Westford manager this morning. Westford is not seeking an override this year. Turk Turksbury kind of feels that this is sort of their last year that they can get by for the upcoming year.
Drake is at a different place as we know. The city of LOL, they're behind. You know, their schedule goes later because they're a city, but obviously they must be worrying what's going to happen with a lot of the federal funding that goes to the city and state aid because state aid might makes up such a
big larger portion of their budget. So, that's sort of where where we're at at this point in time. Uh, and as I said, where we go is the capital process, I said, will begin on Thursday. Um, I expect that when we reconvene in December, we should have the semblance
of that plan, but I think we know what the funding level has to be, you know, um, and we we talked about almost level funding that for the upcoming year. Um and then again we're we are going to look at anything and if anybody has a suggestion who's either watching this meeting or at this table either tonight
or in the weeks ahead please let us know. Um yeah you saw this the historic numbers of staffing. It's not you know it's not as though we've become bloated. Uh and you saw the staffing numbers that Dr. Lane gave in terms of teachers. You know we know we know what some of those
costs are. Many of those are fixed costs to be fair to the schools. their biggest increases have been in in special education and support services for students, you know, because we've seen that that growth of IEPs and the growth
of of behavioral and and other support services that that aren't discretionary. And so that's what makes this also challenging. So I will stop there. [Music] questions or comments for the town manager.
>> For our December meeting, will you have dollar amounts for some of these? >> Yes. Yes. Yeah, we we'll we will try to put some dollar amounts on some of the trash options. Um and I'm hoping to have some preliminary on the public safety dispatch uh and others that yeah, the
goal would be is can you how can we do something with that? Um yeah, so yes, the short answer is yes. We're going to try to quantify that as well as you know the select board asked us to look at fee schedules we do that annually now we may we may come back and
do another review and say hey you know despite that we're as we reported to the board the town's fee levels for licensing and so forth are at where our comparable communities are we may just have to say hey look given the realities we may have to bump them up um but yes
that that would be our goal is to come back with some more specific numbers and options uh when we reconvene, but the purpose of tonight was to get the thinking and the information out there so that these thoughts and and considerations can take place uh in the weeks ahead.
>> And you mentioned that other towns for the condos. If you could have like if we have the numbers and just have other how many other towns are doing it, that would be really helpful for our next meeting. >> And then one more I just have one more question. >> Sure. >> On the on the health insurance on the
GOP funding. Have you heard anything about I mean theoretically right this is helping people lose weight >> which should help with reason why insurancees are paying for it is because if people are healthy weight then they
don't have cardiovascular they don't have diabetes which would help in the long term. Have you heard anything about like have the insurance like have you heard anything I guess are they forecasting any savings in the long term like are we going to start seeing this in 10 years or
the I was at a meeting in August with one of the executives at Blue Cross Blue Shield. Their answer was they have no empirical evidence that these weight loss drugs uh result in longer term savings. Now again, part of the problem
is they're so new that you don't have the data. And yet I was at a meeting last Friday with one of the providers of these management programs who said, "Oh, our our trial shows that that people save." So part of it is you got to say, "Are you getting unbiased data?" But the
other part is, you know, it's too short of a window, but think about it. You know, and again, we're not sure what the federal government's going to do with Medicare and Medicaid despite the announcement last week, but these comp what Blue Cross is saying is they're no longer providing it
because they don't see the data and they're in the health business. I mean, they right. But what they're saying is what you larger employers, you can decide whether to offer it and then here's the premium you'll pay to to provide that level. But the short answer is no. Um, but you're right, the intuitive thing would be, well, gee, if
somebody is healthier, you know, then, you know, then then you know, you're going to have future claims and, you know, down the road. But right now, there's no evidence that anybody has brought forward that's credible that shows that. It may just be that there isn't enough time period to do that in
terms of these drugs have only been around uh in the last few years. Um and that I I think the concern is that what what they do see is that when people stop taking them because they have side effects part of the it's not just EG the reason some people stop taking them is
they have side effects gastrointestinal other side effects and then when people go off them then the the um you know the the weight comes back because what it's doing is it's suppressing the urge to eat. >> Yeah. So it's not and if people aren't
doing other healthier uh changes in lifestyle then that's then that's where it falls apart. So the short answer to your question is is no. I haven't seen any evidence because if it were then the companies would be saying hey look take this cost now but you're going to see these trends coming down uh in the years
ahead in terms of cardiovascular kidney and other diseases. That's not what you're seeing. And these are major providers and and in a very progressive state, right, with Massachusetts, right? There isn't a bet place for more progressive health care and quality of health care. And yet your providers, your your you know, Blue
Cross, your Harvard Pilgrims and so forth, there, you know, they're talking about doing away with it. >> So, can I ask the site question? >> Sure. >> Um, I mean, I see the cost that it is to the town. It's it's just growing every year. So, Blue Cross Blue Shield Medicare Advantage that the town offers
to retirees has announced starting January they will not cover these GLP at all for any weight loss. Do you know of any of the other town um plans are also saying the same thing like would that cost go away because they will not
>> the the the the federal plans the Medicare supplement plans and they're on a calendar year. So that's why you're seeing these announcements come Yeah. come um in January. The town's health plans are on a fiscal year, so they're not out till July one. That
>> Medicare Advantage because I looked >> Oh, Medicare Medicare is a is a is a Medicare Advantage is a Medicare supplement plan. Yeah, that's on a calendar year. So that's why they're saying is here's your renewal and and therefore we're not covering it as of January 1. Decisions have not been made
onto the July one active employee renewals. Um that decision will be made in the next it'll probably be made in the next several weeks for the town for our active plans and for the GIC will be
made by March. What the GIC wanted to do the GIC which is a group insurance commission speaking in acronyms which which ensures state employees as well as the towns that participate in the state's program. They wanted to do a mid-year change of plan and cut them off on January 1. the legislature did
nothing with it. Um and so that's not going to take effect. Um and again this late entry into the race is this idea of this manage play plans would well you can provide it well you know but you're going to have to enroll and participate in this management plan for lifestyle
changes if you're going to continue on this. We don't know how that's gonna unfold and we also don't know how that program would work because if you don't are you off it forever or is it only in that cycle or what? So that the short answer is is we don't know. >> And what we also know is even though
the insurance company may save money by no longer covering those drugs, >> they are still increasing premiums. >> Yeah. Oh yeah. Because it's not because it's not just a GLP. Yeah. We shouldn't just say that if we could just wipe out the GLP drugs then GLP1 drugs that
everything is is fine >> because the premiums are still >> premiums. Yeah. And and and a lot of I mentioned earlier is is specialty pharmacy and and you know gene therapy. You know some of the fantastic cancer drugs and everything else but those are expensive and and then the trials that
work and the trials that don't work. I mean it it's it's like anything else. It's we have such great technology and such great research in in a state that's really built upon pharmaceutical and and and medical innovation and leadership that that's sort of what's driving it,
but it's costly. Um, and it's I mean it's no different than what you're seeing environmentally, right? Look at all the money we're we because because we can now detect PAS and parts per trillion and and forever chemicals. It's it's now costing for a fortune, you know, to to remediate and
address those issues. And we know that for our stand as a town because we've got one active remediation site and then we're cleaning up soils and groundwater from from underground fuel storage tanks that were removed with permits and environmental review, you know, 20 years
ago for fire stations. And now we're back saying, "Oh, test the water for PAS." Oh, oh, I mean, it's costing us tens of thousands of dollars. It's because we've become so technologically savvy that therefore that the the research and the equipment that comes
out of that is great. And, you know, who knows, you know, where it's going to go, but the bottom line is no one's been able to wrestle the cost component of that. And that's really the challenge is you know we can do remarkable things things that were unheard of generations
ago and I know probably all of us have been touched by that either personally or through family or other members that you know if this technology that exists today did didn't exist and it did not exist you know 20 or whatever years ago those people didn't survive. Now you've
got remarkable, you know, and again, it's it's just the the the nation, and I say the nation because it's not unique to CH, it's not unique to Massachusetts, the nation just hasn't come to grips with this in terms of how do we provide this um and how do
we fund this and how do we allocate it? Um because as as noted, it's a health condition. obesity yet just like mental illness and other things. It's a health condition for GLP-1 but other drugs and therefore how do we wrestle with that um
in terms of funding it. I don't know. Um but I but what we do know is the the concentration of providers becomes the wrestling match over funding you know and and that's and that's not just limited in healthcare. We see that
everywhere else right we no longer have an enterprise bank in Chson. It wasn't because Enterprise Bank was going insolvent. It's because the market changed. Um, but what is that going to mean in the long run? You know, I think as I said earlier, we seeing we saw those things and are
seeing those things with school bus transportation, fire apparatus, um, solid waste and so forth. Um, it it's, you know, it it's it's a game. we're in a venture capital game
and and we're sort of bearing those costs of of what the world is in 2025 which is not the world of of 2000 or what have you. So just one other request here is if we could also look in context of the fiveyear outlook because I think in
sometimes we might have ideas that are good and maybe um applicable for the next year but then we we lose sight of the ripple effect over the course of the next five years and so based on the presentation we have a compounding sort of effect of deficits that are coming up that are projected. So I think that
might be helpful to put in next meeting in the context of if we're as we make these decisions uh what does that mean for the future? >> Yeah. And and that's why John provides per our bylaw a five-year forecast at Falltown meeting and he showed that this was a $3 million problem compounding
annually in that fiveyear period. the challenges. Who would have thought two years ago that who'd be sitting in the White House today or what the Congress would be and and to now say who's going to be sitting in the White House in 20, you know,
2031, you know, or 20 even 2029 is it's, you know, it's groping in the dark when we we we can't we don't even know what's going to happen in five weeks or five months, never mind five years. And so that's why we tend to spend less on the
long term because this is such an unpredictable market. And I think that's part of what's slowing down the economy is no in you know the investment is stopping because there's no certainty. You know the rule was always government was supposed to provide a stable environment so that investments could
make healthy investments and now what you're seeing is that's all been turned upside down. you have whether you believed in things like putting wind turbines whatever on the ocean there were contracts let there was work performed and all of a sudden it just got ripped away and these other things
and again I'm not trying to get into the political aspects of it but you one can't but acknowledge the volatility look at the regulatory environment the same thing right you've got the state a very progressive state of Massachusetts basically saying within the last month oh we're going to remove all these
hurdles for environmental things you so that you we can build more housing and so forth because we know to do a simple stream crossing, you know, it's five times the cost because of the environmental licensing and permitting review. And Pat and I heard this this morning as we were with Representative
RCRO that a simple stream crossing because of the regulatory review, it it it's it's just it's just getting to the point where it's just not, you know, not a viable investment. And that's why you're seeing companies hold back uh
from investing because of the uncertainty. And that's the worst thing that can happen um in our climate because nobody even knows what tax policy is, never mind environmental or or other regulatory policy um because of the volatility.
Any other comments or questions for the town manager? Seeing none, I'd open up the meeting for any general discussion if anybody had anything to say. Okay, seeing none, we'll take a motion to adjurnn. >> Make a motion to adjurnn.
>> Can I get a second? >> Second. >> All in favor? I >> Thank you all. Thank you.