[Music] [Music] on March 25th 2025 this is a meeting of the finance committee in the town of Halifax uh some a couple of items to start off with our uh this meeting is being recorded by
area 58 for later viewing uh all members are present in person at town hall cheryl Burke Mike Bennett Frank Johnston Ed Brian Bill Smith Mike Regetta and myself uh so uh two things on the agenda first thing on the agenda item is the
acceptance of minutes from 310 of 25 has everybody had an opportunity to look at the minutes that were distributed last week anybody have any ads changes or deletions no no and I get a motion to approve the minutes so moved second okay
all in favor i any opposed hearing none meanings are approved uh next item we have on our budget is the FY26 or I'm sorry next item on the agenda we have the FY26 budget for review and a vote um Cody has brought in some new budgets for us to
have a look at uh and also um for for an override budget so um I'll turn it over to Cody right now if you would like to just kind of brief everybody on where we're at yeah so um not really any significant changes compared to what you've been seeing uh for the past
couple of weeks a couple of small adjustments in the um elected treasurer collector and elected town clerk salary we um I had forgotten I think I mentioned the treasurer collector gets a $1,000 stipen for being certified so I
needed to make sure that was added in and then like I had said the idea was putting it on the next closest uh step within the within the range there um and then the town clerk I think we had mentioned the the position was kind of misgraded in the past so the idea of
just getting on that step one of the grade um those are the two changes in the uh balanced budget uh I'm sorry the other change is under the library um wages uh we added a little bit of
funding back into that because we my previous recommendation would have brought us below the 3-year average plus 2 and a half% which would have uh put us at risk of being certified and potentially some grant funding so it made sense for us to add the the little
less than $10,000 back in and then we're eligible for 20 20 plus,000 in grants so it really makes up for itself um so those are those are pretty much the changes here and it's about as perfect of budget as I think we're going to get we spent a lot of time on this yeah Cody
thank you for all your work on this lindsy's been very helpful too so yeah both of you i can't even imagine how many hours you put into this any questions on any of the particulars again like I said really two small or three small changes in the
balance budget um and then the differentiation under the override budget is just taking into account the um that again that funding to make sure we reach that three-year average plus 2 and a half%
okay so I mean my question is a pretty broad one so it's kind of open for discussion um now everybody who was is on the committee was at the meeting last year when things got kind of upended with uh the residents not wanting to
follow the budget that we had set out we had to make changes during the meeting right again fine not a big deal is that something I think that's something we should talk about now and something I'm putting out to the committee itself is you know so we don't get kind of caught
um you know by the shorthairs by the residents wanting to change things from a monetary perspective do we need to prepare a third budget that has some other dollars moved around as an example if they don't want to you know spend money in the capital plan the way we
have it laid out and they want to move it somewhere else do we need to prepare a budget for that or is that something that would have to be addressed at a later date which causes an issue of when that budget would actually get approved right yes so um a couple points on that
the the idea so capital is funded with free cash uh capital planning committee makes a recommendation these are the items it was in the presentation that I attended out there um ultimately foregoing that would be a
board of selectman policy decision if they wanted to vary you know make any variances from the finance committee could certainly make a recommendation hey we recommend that you don't fund X and you you you utilize it for X again broken record but never going to
recommend using one-time funds for reoccurring expenses um if if you were to if that were something that to were to change you wouldn't necessarily change the budget um it would just be our revenues so on the back side you all
have access to it you can see it in those spreadsheets we have a revenues page where it shows all our forecasted revenues that would just go into there basically as an additional revenue source um if under the override budget it would obviously just reduce the
deficit so we have an $810,000 give or take uh deficit if if you appropriated $300,000 for free cash it obviously reduces that deficit so you either make cuts or you you go for an override for that amount right if if someone were to
um make a motion to appropriate funding from free cash to somewhere in the budget that would be on whoever was making the motion they'd have to identify where in the budget they want that Okay well I just want to make sure that we're we're prepared when we get to the
meeting cuz I think it's going to be cuz you see it all over you see it all over the local news dubberry Norwell everybody's got a deficit they're dealing with and everybody's addressing it however they can best address it right so I just want to make sure that we're prepared um as as a finance
committee to either support or not support that that's the first thing for the committee to to kind of discuss and talk about um because when that question if that question comes up and I'm feel pretty confident it will um you know we need to say whether we support that or
not right and not just kind of you know stand there with our hat in our hands saying I don't know um yeah I mean these are your recommended budgets i mean it's what I'm recommending to you but at the end of the day it's something that you are voting on to recommend y um I can
tell you we're going to try to be as prepared as we can be for town meeting uh you know we're going to try to like we talked about have some budget forums in April right uh put together a little bit of a more I mean you saw the presentation for tonight uh make that a little bit more robust and give that at
town meeting obviously once there is a definitive plan in place and be prepared for um amendments to to some extent but obviously it all depends on what the nature is we'll try to be prepared as
possible i just I wish I had a better answer for you um right we you know as far as things like wages um we're talking you know it's it's not a ton of employees it's about 15 employees now
that are non-union um that you know if town meeting again if you if you made a recommendation tonight for a 2% cola and that were to change um I can certainly have that information ready but but I but but to present it I
don't know if that's the best option either because well I guess you want to stand behind the budget you're presenting the information you're presenting and not necessarily say well you could pick this or that because naturally people are going to say Well we'll pick the lesser option right and
and when the when it comes to the wages my concern is you know if wages don't go through again this year now you're 2 years without any sort of cost living adjustment you know it's one thing to go one um you know people are getting step increases but you know two just like the
town's facing tough economic times and in the community so are our employees right our employees are are no different than that so and and we're not talking 5% coal this year right we're talking two 2% coal as last year's done with so if we get to that at this town meeting
or you guys you know when you discuss it tonight I just would strongly urge you know take that into consideration it's it's it's funding and I get that but relatively speaking in a $30 million budget we're talking about 17 $18,000
um you know adequately compensate our employees yeah and I think with with the budget the way it is and the amount of cutting that needed to happen to get the budget where it is right now who knows what's going to be asked of those employees coming into the next year so I I think that needs to play into our decision as well because they they did
not get the increase last year um and you know we're we're looking at a significant a deficit that's a lot more than we were last year was my point right so we just have to be ready for that yeah part of that we need to discuss too Cody is
um about the new union that's taken place with a lot of those workers that didn't get the wages last year um and how that's going to affect us going forward with collective bargaining now and how many people are left that are strictly just going to be colas on an
annualized basis yeah so my goal really is you know you guys along with the selectman and the department heads um I rely on all of you or you're the eyes and ears of the community so that's why as things come up if you think there's
you know things hey hey you missed this or you know did you think about this let us know and we'll try to be prepared for a town meeting that's also the goal of those budget workshops once we get through tonight get those scheduled and get feedback the goal is to hopefully answer questions during those meetings
but at the very least if we don't we can say "Okay we'll circle it back to you." And it lets us get a little bit more prepared because there's always things that come up that just didn't think of i mean that just that happens so beyond the budget forums the presentation and
town meeting I don't know how much more prepared we can be feel very I think we were prepared last year but we spent a lot of time this year um in tightening things up and maybe the um PowerPoint presentation you're going to have tonight or as it gets refined as we go
along after you have a public forum we were a maybe we can get that loaded onto the town website so people have access to it that way as well um so they can spend time looking at those numbers themselves as soon as we have um some
sort of approved or approvals tonight um we're going to create a FY26 budget page on the website presentations will be there uh if there's multiple versions of the budgets that information will be there when we do the first public forum you want to call it we're going to have
area 58 record it we'll post that there uh really want to try to get the information out there yeah similar to what Hansen just set up yep something very similar to that okay okay so Cody are we voting on both budgets is
that what we're doing up to you guys right so basically if you had a chance to look at my presentation you you kind of the the town uh you and the board of select in my professional opinion I think you have you really three options right so we're presented with uh a
deficit of 8 approximately 810,000 the actual numbers like 806 and change but for conversation sake we'll call it 810 um you know there is the you have the balance budget in front of you which would be all balance right no override
that eliminates the deficit of 810,000 you know cuts that I had mentioned before in general government and then some additional cuts at the elementary school so your option is go with that forego an override this year make cuts we we I can tell you now
there's going to be an override next year we're going to have to have an override next year whether you approve whether you recommend one this year or not given Silver Lake's uh anticipated assessment next year I I anticipate very well over it next year so the 810 what
would that be as a tax 200 28630 by laptopation it was like 550 on a million yeah that's the average so if you lessen that well to 300 hypothetically 300,000 when I grab my laptop I can let you
yeah it's on that spreadsheet that um or the presentation break out of that based on the assessed balance okay so one so option one no override you approve a a balance budget with cuts
option two um you present basically two budgets Um one is the balance budget that would be your typical article 4 town meeting and then you have a supplemental budget basically that would be the amount of the override both articles have to pass then it goes to
the ballot to fund that supplemental budget passes at the ballot we're good we have a a full budget with a supplemental budget if it doesn't pass at the ballot we refrain back to article 4 so that overrides your second option and again we will need one next year so I I just I want to make that very clear
this is not a one-year approach this basically gets the town side of things through this year silver Lake used their one-time funds um we still saw quite a big increase in the assessment but next year I anticipate our Silver Lake assessment to be at least an $800,000
increase probably be fair right because you can anticipate they're probably going to come in with around a 5% increase in their budget which is approximately $400,000 for us and then they used $1.2 2 million in their onetime funds which were about 33% of the budget so that's 400,000 there so
it's safe to assume those are just very high level figures but it pretty safe assumption there um and then option three I don't recommend it i never going to recommend that you use one-time funds for reoccurring expenses um you could do
you know you you could use some sort of free cash to help get you through this year knowing that you're going to need the override next year a caveat with if you were to do that and this is just based on my conversations with other town managers
town administrators it's it's not wise to also do an override this year even if it's an a lesser amount because typically communities that do multiple overrides consecutively don't have high success rates even if the amounts are
lower so if you if you were to use onetime funds this year you my recommendation would be a combination of one-time funds with cuts forego an override this year knowing that next year you you are have going to have to have an override and it hopefully gives
you a little bit more time to prepare if we can get some more information from the schools but also it it makes it one operational override and also Kingston and Plimpmpton are likely need so what's the which is a which is a you
know it's yeah I get it um well said um so what is the um uh that comment made me lose my train of thought oh what is the um what's the estimate of I know you gave us the estimate for on education next year but
if if we're thinking now that an override is a requirement for next year what is that number ballpark is it around the same amount this is the challenge um you know I can I can put a a very good I you know we have projections for general government side of things and I
can have a pretty good idea of things right our bar less more of the same i don't even want a number right of 810 yeah more okay i I I would say it's probably fair to say I'll um it's probably fair to say a million plus because if you just again I'm giving
very high numbers here but if you take I anticipate our revenue growth to be very similar next year as to or fiscal 27 as fiscal 26 so call it maybe $800,000 of new revenue we just said we anticipate Silver Lake increase being $800,000 so
without any increases to Halifax Elementary School or our you know general government our new revenues are hypothetically in our projections wiped out so any increases to Halifax Elementary which it you know you heard their contractual obligations you know
you can expect probably them to at least request 5% not to say we can approve 5% you can expect them to request maybe 5% um and then you can expect somewhere probably at least 3% for the general government side of things
so you're looking at likely at a million dollar somewhere in that one 1.5 at least okay again high level don't hold me to it but it's that's it's the best figure I can give you at this point okay all right anything else for me quickly i
have to jump into a live meeting yeah please thank you great work all right ladies and gentlemen what What are we voting on tonight school budget we're voting on I guess budget well either one the A10 or
actually both don't we budget we're deciding what budget to present to the board of Right so here's here's my final thought on this to be honest it's my opinion and again this is just my opinion you know I agree with Cody we're going to have to
fight a bud an override next year i would rather take 810 and fund the budget out of free cash this year and fight the override next year instead of trying to fight two overrides so I agree with that except I don't know if I like
the whole 810 amount okay well you know again the capital there's two there's two big numbers in the capital planning right yeah ambulance roads that's $800,000 $800,000 roads
is the ambulance can he survive with that ambulance well you know that's the question right so the ambulance that we're talking about is a 2019 ambulance it's got I don't know like 60ome,000 miles on it it you know the maintenance looks like it was like $6,000 which to
me is negligible right especially on a vehicle of that nature right $6,000 is what's that $600 a month $500 a month you can believe it's going to take them a good year to get the vehicle at
least to deliver at least oh yeah you would right that's why they're wanting to take it now you know yeah but I feel that between the
roads in the ambulance is 800,000 and do we need to do two police cruises this year well that's you know I you know that's that's the rotation that they're on right right but a lot of things are which is why he's asking for two i'm not saying that you should have
to that's the rotation that he's on right right that's Yeah that's what he's been asking for it's going to be You got to think of the cost though when they start breaking down because you got to think these vehicles are 24/7 365 and the cost can be exuberant it's going
to take a lot right go into the year it's going to I mean the longer you put it off the more it's going to cost right understand if we have to skip a year to clean things up for this year so we go into next year knowing dang well that Silver Lake's going to come in heavy next year
that um we do the override for next year and not this year save the fight right can't do two overrides two two aren't going to fly two goodness so one's going to be hard jim yeah what
what is our free cash number uh 1.3 1.3 did they use all of it up for the um delivery well yeah because that's that's that's been the course of business that they worked right so they had there's a cyclical inspection for the assessor's
office that we need to finish that's 94,000 highway storm water management 80,000 building maintenance the funding for to we have to add money to to get the library window thing uh project done so that's another 20,000 um the fire
department they want an ambulance right so that's 500 um 50 for gear uh 70 for rescue tools uh annual road maintenance 300,000 which I thought was in the budget but I don't know how it got to capital planning that would well he gets
his other money for well he gets chapter 90 money right which is like I don't know 300,000 yeah 360 or something like that yeah uh blacksmith shop 35,000 um the two water department ones are going to come out of their retained earnings so that doesn't apply right two
police vehicles 120 um firearm firearm farm replacement 15 uh and then treatment plant water treatment plant that's 500,000 but again that's retained retained so yeah okay budget so that's a
capital plant what's the 35,000 for the blacksmith you know the repairs to the shop the historical repairs that have to be done this year well we didn't they wanted it last year we didn't do it last year so now they're passed yeah it's been it's been that way
for two or three years now So so Jim I I my my my I agree with your approach i think that um it's unrealistic to expect to be able to go in and ask for an override two
years in a row specifically at the amounts that we're talking um so again I the 810 is a tough number for me to get behind um my head is at
$500,000 out of free cash and then 300,000 in additional cuts somewhere so it's more so it's more than halfway funded because I do think that there is um potential for the there to be room we heard we heard
um uh elementary last week I think tell us that they were putting a freeze on $200,000 of their special ed money uh if I'm hearing their previous meetings there's over $300,000 that's there right now so there might be some potential for
additional savings there um yeah I think it's 200 and 200 200,000 this year and 200,000 next year right but but the but the number that's there this year is greater than 200,000 is my
point so there there might be an option there um I don't know i just think $500,000 in free cash for the whole year is not is not a lot for us to be able to get done what we need to get done as a town that's that's my concern
but I I I agree 100% that I if if the committee here doesn't agree that that's the approach we take I I'm with everyone on the fact that we can't go two years in a row with an override i'd rather see the whole 800 taken out yeah well that's you know that's that's my opinion too i don't think they're
going to be able to make another $300,000 in cuts i just I just don't think it's there the school is already cutting too much getting rid of teachers the town will be in an uproar if the school has to make more cuts than any I just wor I just worry what 1.7 looks
like next year right right because th those cuts are a lot more significant than 300,000 that's that's my concern is if that you know cuz I know we're talking about this year but we need to talk about this year with next year in mind as well given the
circumstances and if if we're worried about the school having to cut um with the number we're at what are we going to be what position will we be in next year when we're looking at over a million dollars
that's that's the only that's the only reason why I am concerned about that ball in with free cash this year right no that's a fair point so if using the current um property values a $1 million override
in Halifax is $352.76 additional so add to that obviously if it goes over that at $500,000 correct that's a million dollar that's a million dollar so you're figuring it's a million
dollar override million override based on what property valuation is today $500,000 500,000 right that's so it's about it's probably closer to $1,000 per given the valuations where they are right now for the majority well yeah I
guess going to go up a little bit so so that's I mean that's what we're going to be asking for next year right mhm probably a little more right probably close to 4 450 I would think to cover
everything but that that a year from now is is much more manageable than going back to the well you can't Yeah you're not going to be able to go back to the well oh yeah and I just think I think the residents just had enough are going to have a hard time swallowing some of those capital expenses
and override person which one of these do we want to approve guys that's where we're at both the balance budget i don't think we have a choice we can we can approve both yeah and then it's up to the select to
the select to want to fund it over recommendation from us to fund it out of um capital expenditures of $800,000 one time one time onetime funds yes for this year okay so and then the select
will decide if they want to present then that's up to them that's up to them at that point and then the town selected to vote on whether the override would pass if they decided by the override to and the override if the override passes it goes to the uh Saturday election right
town election which is where it should that decision should be made agreed to make a decision to decide to put it on the ballot Saturday but it needs to be
residents absolutely so what so the motion is then what to vote on to approve both I I think a motion to approve both budgets Um and with 800,000 coming out of uh free cash out
of free cash okay we can only recommend that we can't No we can only recommendation recommendation right but the select have the final say afterre after that but then can we could we then just recommend
the one budget with the override amount instead of both budgets no no cuz we want both couches on the on the warrant cuz they're going to tear it apart and then Well they have to So the warrant the 8 810 will come first if they say no
to that then this one right so they're both going to be there that makes sense all right and then the 800 is attached to the 810 right yep so we're going to vote on both budgets as they stand and then we're going to suggest that we move
A10 from free cash fun to get us to a reasonable budget after significant cuts have been made by everybody in town is that a motion does that make sense makes sense i wish I wish
you picture so is that the motion yeah is there a second second all in favor i any opposed hearing none passes okay all right
it's now 6:00 that's a lot good wow look at that it's like a motion the timing is everything i'm telling you right on time i'm telling you um I think so we did the minutes you want to punch through the other uh
there's I don't think any liaison updates at this point um correspondence and as may arise I did not I haven't gotten any emails uh outside of uh anything that other than what Cody has sent that we will see here later um anybody have anything they would like to
discuss with the rest of the committee while we're here no okay public participation Jean Jean Thank you Jean okay um next meeting planning so we are I think we have a meeting for next Monday on the
calendar already for just the finance committee meeting um and uh we will be meeting with the selecting here in the next few minutes all right [Music]