okay has any Poli not all some of them have like one that they use but nobody like all really Japanese working
ready everyone to thank for the flag I to the flag the United States of America stand budget Workshop meeting today's Wednesday March 5th and time is 10:04 pursuant to the requirements of the open
public meeting act chapter 231 public 1975 notice of this meeting was published in February 28th 25 issues of The Herald news and posted on C website and nle Town Hall bulletin board a copy of this notice has been placed on file
in the municipal CL office here commissioner here commission scarelli Zoom here volume at 100 Kelly also present is uh Stephanie
Santana or CFO uh and Ray serenelli senior the municipal accountant ofan and our attorney Jonathan Bruno is via Zoom uh we the only thing we have on our agenda so far today is our uh budget
discussion so I'll turn it over to our Rue Finance commissioner commissioner Evans u a couple things overall uh our uh budget has increased uh 2 point roughly $2.1 million year-over-year
after transfers out to the S utility completing Appropriations are now total 64 m788 56 um we also have had an increase in our revenues uh net of about
$734,000 so that the amount that we we need to raise from our taxpayers is roughly a M4 uh and that trans including the library that translates right now to an average $132 per household um
we as far as the numbers are concerned the work that everybody's done I think we have a a good starting point uh and I mean starting point because I think we have more work to do in order to be able to get down to a level which
U don't know what the county increas will be if uh what we do know though is that uh the equalization ratio for the township went down from 96 and a half% down to
89% which means fair value of property went up so it's a good thing that values went up uh it's also market conditions are driving that uh as we all know but in the county the formula for allocating
the county tax is based upon the uh accessible value of your property so the fact that on an equalized basis the valuation went equalized ratio went down that means that we uh run the risk of
getting a greater allocation of the um County tax which could be in the range of two and a half to 3% uh and that that itself would increase the uh taxpayer uh residential taxpayer Base by $70 on average per
household right now um the school U had plus 3% in their school a uh year over-year better than what was anticipated um and from what I understand uh the school board is working on their increase which they
believe will be in the three and a half% range however they need to work through a lot of the detail for uh they can confirm that or I'd be willing to stand by it uh there's still a lot of moving Parts across the street so while the county and the school is not directly
ours we need sort of be aware of it but you put it all together where we are right now the uh tax the average taxpayer can see on average with all all things in uh could be between $340 and $380
per for the average the average uh household is $491,000 or roughly about 12,500 so if you're below that you'll get less if you're above that you're going to get more me too right we'll get more of uh
so so what we have to do today is is understand where we're at um I'm hopeful that before we adopt we'll be we will be able to uh collect uh from the school district uh the $300,000 that is uh related to school
crossing gos their budget does not actually account for that today given all the disruption but I have had conversations with uh the monitor um who we had strong
conversation about that was a commitment that was made uh and they need to stand by that no matter what they're doing in their analysis they have to yeah so you know all things being equal uh and given the history um um we
would be I cleared this with with Ray we would be able to if we get a check we will be able to add it uh to our budget assumption for 2025 which is $300 or about $30 $300,000 which about $30 uh
per household but we can't do that unless we get a check in hand that clears the back right because of history of non-compliance so if we get that that might be a way to when did they say they it would be it won't be here in time for us to
introduce but it could be here in time before we adop it's early May time frame I think that would happen say on that to keep keep pushing on that uh to make sure that that becomes a a standing commitment um we did have a a note sale
on Tuesday uh for a bonding related to 777 uh and uh we were able to secure a one-year uh note at a net interest rate of 3% uh terms of the lease Arrangement which
will start uh in September and payments for next year uh that at 3% that allows the pay the lease payment that we will get for this school to cover uh The Debt Service payment uh that we have to make on the interest so it's coming into line
and that's an interest only yeah it's a note instead of doing a bond uh because the expectation is as you as you know 2031 32 that note will flip to the school because their their heavy debt is coming
off the boook then so the big debt will come off this will go on we'll have to bond it at that time whatever interest rate and whatever turn that makes sense for them uh we will roll it as not what's the ter you have to go back I'll do it again
yeah it's the same thing I did with chicolini we we floated the notes and we wrote them down one uh one year of the note that we did with chelini interest rate was down to a half a perc so we were able to we bought it but we were able to pay the note the debt off in
three years with very low it the same way because I think the rate volatility is going to continue I think we'll be able to take advantage of you think they would have to I want they so they're going to pay interest only till 2032 you're saying yeah and then they'll Bond the money and how long
would that be get it go 20 years on that they could yeah because it's Capital Improvement so uh they can stretch that out for as long as they they like to they might have other Capital Improvement requirements then but uh
whatever that is it doesn't it should not necessarily include a large scale uh referendum could be a NE for one and I've talked with them several times about why wait 30 years to go out and ask everybody for 780 million if you
have some things that need to get done live periodically so you do smaller fights that are more reasonable and have different terms which can manage that de service in the budgets summary we have
uh it plays out by uh Department uh you know what's going on the pluses and the minuses for each of you if you and you can each of you can comment on what's happening in your in your budget areas
uh help I can help you Revenue Finance we're going down roughly $2.6 million uh and that's primarily related to um the to transfer of the 24 sewer money off of
the books going into the sewer utility as you can see of 2.2 million right that's reduction in cost it's a transfer to another billing this transfer that would took place in Revenue Finance of DPW
completes the the transfer of and setting up the utility now for the entire year last year we did it for six months now we're doing it for the full so it's just a trans that's just a transfer the decrease in my area of 422,000 primarily uh relates to the fact
that last year I put in a appropriation for $513,000 as a reserve in case we didn't collect enough money in the SE utility that had to be applied in order to zero out the utility uh for 2024 don't have to do that so if that's
coming out as an appropriation in my budget I do have other there pluses and minuses as it relates to salary the economic uh develop but they all basically net
out so uh on the revenue side important point to raise is that we did get over the last few years uh Municipal relief Aid uh that funded by the government in first year was about
25,000 23,000 last year it was 5 47,000 um budget the governor's budget introduced this year eliminates Municipal relief for all towns that were receiving it so uh we had to remove that
Revenue so right now that 547 th000 is out of our we do not have as I imtion the school crossing guard Revenue um but we might be able to put it back but as of right now uh the
$300,000 plus uh the by 800 change is reducing what's happening to our Reven it's going up it's still not up high as could we as I mentioned to you we've
been struggling with uh the ly caps as well as the appropriation caps um uh uh I'll tell you that uh we're okay on the levy cap we've been working on the appropriation cap uh I
think you know when he when he provides comments share with you uh the negotiations that we had here with the state to to get if we did not get the C relief uh we would um which I I think we've got it cover
uh and able to say more but if we did not get the cap relief on Appropriations we would be looking at this budget no matter what the condition of this budget is right now we would be looking at uh somewhere in the neighborhood of $900,000 of Appropriations that would need to be cut in order to meet the
three and a half% cap on Appropriations not mean that then this budget would be required by Statute to go out as a public question to get approval from others of the town in order for us to adopt so I believe we're
we're we're not going to have out but it does uh put an emphasis on the fact that we should be uh making sure that we can get the uh the impact on the taxpayers as as low as possible I know some of you have raised
with me that you have adjustments to make in your budget happy to share how you share those comments right now which I great Ray I'll turn it over to you he's muted oh unmute unmute I'm sorry okay so you were breaking up a little bit but I think you
were just you summar I heard most everything that you summarized the budget um and all the factors that have gotten you to this point and I think we're getting pretty close to finalizing the
budget uh the main issue being the cap we've been doing research on a cap exception uh the the division of local government services has taken a little bit of a different position than they
have in the past which was um these are the laws follow them we don't care and now they seem to have gotten it different mandate and um you know we've looked at
exceptions that they've allowed for other municipalities and have been working with them on getting a cap exception um I'll say sort of retroactive for the three Pilots that you have in place it looks very
favorable at this point we've been in contact them they understand it it's similar to what they've allowed uh but they haven't finalized their approval but our expectation is that they probably will I know commissioner
Peta has asked year after year what do we do you know we have these cap issues uh well we haven't had them in the past because of good planning that's been done over the years by everybody we knew this year uh probably going to hit the
cap wall and did preliminary IL but based on our uh preliminary contacts with them it looks like we will be getting relief for most of the cap most of the amount that were over
cap um commissioner Evans brought up a couple of good issues the 300,000 uh with the school if that did come in I think we're looking at a tax increase including the library right now
of uh I think it was 132 or $133 um if $132 if that 300,000 comes in um it would get your tax increase very close to or below $100
which sounds a lot better than $132 so you know that's broken into two parts the municipal share of the budget is 13 1,000 um and that's increased by the library by another
$19 um I in my mind I always separate out the library because that's dictated to you based on the municipal um State equalized value so the part of the budget that you control is up
113 add the library to it if you came up with 300,000 I'm sure uh while I didn't speak to commissioner Evans about this if you were somewhere hovering around the $100 increase uh you might be flexible enough to find some Revenue
that would get you under a $100 increase which I think would be a nice statement to be able to make particularly in fact uh you know the fact that you lost 540,000 47,000 in uh state aid which is about
half of the tax increase that you're uh faced with uh you did have the note sale 3% that's pretty um uh good rate you had four bids that were very competitive and we're still trying to
wrap up the U you know the trans transition uh to the water sewer utility and the expenses involved I think we're pretty close on that there are a few adjustments uh that are still being made on the
appropriation side you have uh some adjustments I know that you're making to the fee structure related to Sprinklers and summer use of water pools hoses whatever that might reduce the revenue so we may have to look at
the sewer rates and adjust them so that the slightly uh whatever reductions you make for those I guess in a way to be fair that aren't actually having that water go back into the sewer system um
you know might cause a slight increase in the overall rate to keep the sewer utility self-liquidating so you're on a good schedule to introduce the budget uh the statute the statutory requirement is the end of March or the first meeting
after March 31st um I think you're pretty close if you could wrap the budget up soon maybe by the end of the week that would give us uh enough lead time to get it on the state document and have it for your meeting on April
1 thank you thanks so any Commissioners if you may or if you have comments on your particular budget areas that would be great to see I'll start just a couple for for the lines that I control in the parks department we're up about
$120,000 all right over last year's budget and that's still in work in progress so we're going we're going to do better on that and we should bring that down somewhat uh the big ticket items for us and I know commissioner Evans and the mayor Ando also know this
are the live the insurances all right the amounts that we pay to GIF which is a 4% increase this year which includes a retroactive payment because we up some of the other areas and the big hit is the group ins so what
everyone just needs to keep in mind is when someone retires they're not wor of our books we just move them into another colum and this year once again just on the premium we've sustained like a 177% increase but then there's the ripple
effect all right on on the buyout and everything else and all everything that's associated with that which ticks that up a little bit to about 19% all right Mr Evans and I have had uh many conversations about this and Stephanie I know you been speaking the Frank about
this and we're working on bringing that number down so that's also a work progress so we're going to be able to do better there uh but we have to anticipate retirees again moving over into another column and we have to anticipate new hires so depending on
status is of the new hires whether they're single or member spouse or family coverage you know it could be up to $51,000 in change per person I just add to that commissioner how much is family coverage this year 51,000 in
change right one for one employee per employee per employee per employee so if you think about it then and you add to it the taxes for Social Security Medicare
you you unemployment plus the pension Cost Plus Healthcare you a fully loaded employee who's uh making first saer on average 50 Grand a year is somewhere qu that one employee plus the taxpayers roughly
$125,000 right obviously given the scale in public safety that number is much much higher so uh I just we've talked about this before we've we've we've tried to adopt higher in freezes in the past uh
we've tried to look at says you know let's be careful about what we're hiring what we're paying people uh because we have to recognize that it's not just salary it's all these slow to cost and what sometimes is a challenge is uh pension and payroll
taxes are in my department insurances are in your department and payroll is in everybody else's Department uh so uh it becomes a challenge to really sit back and say when I make this decision what am I actually uh paying uh this employee
for the work that they provide absolutely nothing that's wrong with paying people what they do I think Fair Days wage Fair work I think think applies uh but recognizing that the cost of of Manpower uh in today's environment
is very very high we have to be careful about that and it's not just a salary no it's not benefit package many times as you said has cost us more salary is yeah so there needs to be something done at a higher level than us all right to help
adjust this right I'm not talking abouts side adjustments you know that the state pay or may not pay depending on the year that's not for now that's in the future but in the meantime poting it out but what they've done in the last two years at the state
level yes and not at the local level yeah absolutely agree last night seems like things are changing but hopefully they like commissioner Tucci said you know the the health care is extraordinary has to be taken care of
because it's getting harder and harder to run Public Safety and keep our residents safe because when retirees come up the board we don't replace in public safety then we have holes in public safety with Breakin and bail
reform and taking on the ambulance Squad you guys can see how busy we are so it's not even an option not to replace these people for us and I think the problem really lies in the state that control the the health yeah I think we also need
to start conversation with the bargaining units is to how collectively we address some of these issues because we just can't do it by ourselves because as you know especially with your con locked into certain things all right
but if we can get some flexibility while still giving people the coverage that they need because Health Care is very touchy you know people are are very sensitive to it and and rightfully so uh because you know in the event that you have a medical event you want to make
sure that you have enough coverage to carry it through and that you don't wind up in the poor house because you got sick but these are some of the things that we need to keep on our radar and keep in the Forefront because these are important discussions otherwise the
spiral will just continue yeah and when you add to we have over 2200 properties and not leave that are part of the property tax free program right so which means they're 65 years or older and they're and the way the rules
are right now you got to pay it out in order to get it back so cash cash flow becomes very critical for quite a few of our our res so we always have to keep that that in in mind because uh I think
has with that we have to we have to represent everybody so remember if you if you're going to lower health care costs you're going to lower the benefit find about getting the same benefit for Less the benefits going to come down the
contribution levels are going to go up in order to lower lower the premium right and uh that's the only way to do it it's a delicate balance taking care of employees and makeing sure they have proper coverage and all taxpayers in mind how much you know
they're actually charging them you know to provide these Services yeah and being compatible in the marketplace to get good people you know when they have other towns giv higher pays and you know the same benefit if we start cutting
back how do we get those Stell people to provide the services that we do we're not talking about cutting back so let's not that message okay we're talking about starting a conversation with a very very early students well it's just it's just the reality of the environment
that we're in I think it's be wrong on our part not to recognize the value what we do about it what we can do about it is a different discussion but but we need to be aware I think it drives us to think of you know are we providing essential Services you know are all the
services necessary did they provide a benefits that we are making sure we can justify what's in the budget U and to a point that the r made you know because of you know we're going to look at the pilots as a way to create an exception
for the cap there's no written rule that says that's an exception they've allowed it in certain circumstances in the past and we're negotiating through that we think we're going to be successful but recognizing that we have a cap limit next year that will stay the same at 2
and a half% plus the the co the adjustment we make for the one so we got three and a half% which means expenses across the board uh can't really rise more than $1.2 million right otherwise we have a cap
problem and taking this exception this year you know where we'll be next year when we don't have that close this year right so keep just have to keep in mind it can't it can't all be added right distance not and
that's not calling for anything we're not taking anything just being aware of the fact that we are at a point where costs are so high and burdensome that we have to we have to consider that now when you flip it and you say okay we took this money out of the um the budget
or the operating budget and moved it into the sewer utility which basically said instead of baying super sewer based upon the accessible value of your property you'll pay for it B based upon what you use your consumption it's a
consumption based bill right now all those costs went into the utility the um sewer bill as we were discussing last night went up from 4.2 to almost 4.7 million so that H roughly four or
500,000 is in there now has to be captured in making sure we're capturing that in the rates so with all of the adjustments that are going to be made and you hear everybody has their own issue uh and we should be fair and Equitable but at the end of the day when
you when you you adjust for everything you think you have to adjust for you still have to have a rate that collects with the buildings and as Joe mentioned last night sewer sewer bill is a bill it's just like the pension bill it's like the insurance bill it's like everything else it's a bill we have we
have no control about 12% oh that's incredible that Al that Al uh and there's and what if you saw what the SE Valley sewer was saying about you know building a parallel you know trunk line
right to capture more sewage and stuff so it doesn't have the runoff uh had a couple billion dollars to build it and says don't worry All 48 municipalities will pay for it well that means our bill is going to go up just the reality is it's going to go up even so just the
world that we live in challenges of what to go yeah yeah all s so I look as tired as I do so anyway anything that no I mean I just I think that you
know it's important that the school board helps pay the bill that we were talking about before you know that brings you know myc down substantially and you know whatever we can do and to to make all this work you know we're all
on the same page and you know we want to move the account forward and give a you know we pay taxes here and give the lowest you know responsible budget that we can yes lowest responsible sure just a couple points uh
uh out of the mayor's uh budget uh this includes the libraries uh budget uh which we had a good idea buried down in the state house this year who they passed an unfunded mandate which caused us to have an increase there uh and the
other I big increase in the mayor's budget is next year is 2026 it's the 250th anniversary of the founding of our nation and our Civic celebration account uh
the I guess firework people uh informed us that and we've been with them for so long that that they're going to be increasing their rates and so we're capturing that and making sure that we can continue to Pride the Patriotic Play
Celebration that we always do every year uh despite it being a a banner year in public affairs um every five years there's a new Garbage Contract and every five years there there's a there's an adjustment
that needs to be made uh going forward that that increase should be relatively flat most of that increase is out of garbage and again we're on a new system uh and I as I tted before this system will save us money in the long run uh
however we kind to work out where that money savings are and so we're not as aggressive and where we can be in terms of uh the um loads going to to the uh to the dump
uh we haven't calculated January or February yet but for uh the month of January I think we saw 70 ton decrease with and cost wise we saved over $10,000 at the S6 County Utility and we saved
over 6,000 at interestate waste so so we are we are seeing uh some of those savings however uh just to be cautious we're not going to fully roll back those savings and as I said uh with a new
contract there's always a cost increase but it's a five-year contract and so that cost increase should be relatively flat uh I do want to flag well our auditor flag the you know we have the N nutly cultural inclusion in diversity Council which has a small amount of
budgeted item on the reason for that is we do get a lot of Grants through having that line item in our budget with everything going on in Washington it could potentially raise issues with the federal grants and uh we spoke with our
grand writer uh they don't see a very large concern there but I have abundance of caution what what I believe the solution will be is to rename that budget line item from uh diversity related to cultural recognition uh which
should satisfy uh that concern um and I believe that's what I wanted to discuss you know as commissioner PCO said you know we'll be continuing to look at this to make sure that we have the lowest responsible budget and uh right now with the new SI
garbage system uh there's a lot of guess work and we want to we want to be as aggressive as possible but also still be kind of conservative case we don't expect just thank you Joe yeah sorry I've been in and out guys so
um so uh you know with the sore utility we were able to decrease U the sore line item about $49,000 um for that was Mo mostly for salary and O we did see some increase in our costs last year that we have to roll
forward on our disposal of our rec cycling and our vegetation uh so there are some slight increases there uh but overall we're relatively flat as we move forward so um some work still to be done um
probably a little bit both ways but uh I think uh for the most part the utility even though we're we're losing in the operating budget it's obviously going into uh the utility and um I and
think we sent a letter out to everybody um so we can contact our legislators that stake Valley sewage is looking at a redundancy um project that will cost somewhere between 1.3 and 1.5 billion
dollar uh so they're looking for help either from the feds or from the state to uh offset that or else they're going to have to pass it on to the member municipalities uh which one of them is us so um we saw a 6% increase in sewage
um treatment this past year and uh I don't even want to foresee if that 1.4 billion gets passed on to us what kind of increase we're talking about next year so just a cause for concern and uh any
advocacy we can do on our behalf let's let's do it just a keep in mind the final thing you think about the budget uh we run into taxpayers all the time who say taxes are so high to taxing as now what
can you do um if we were to cut our budget $10 million that would reduce the average tax by $1,000 takes $500,000 to reduce the tax rate one penny and one penny is worth $50 on
average so you think about it it's enormously difficult you know to address anything that that people would actually recognize as a beneficial reduction uh and the only way you get to that is you
start just drawing X's uh through things that are in the budget uh which have done I think over the years we've been working on this for first you know a good 10 years to keep the budget efficient keep what is in there uh we
also know that uh we carry a fund balance that is reapplied for tax relief it's something that's been on our books for you know 20 years so if we don't regenerate that that could actually create a tax increase and we manage that very very closely um we continue to
enjoy a good Bond rating we're now double A being Triple A so where that enabled us to continue to be borrowing some very good RS so uh I do need from you your capital requ requirements uh for
everyone uh quickly because we can if we do a good job we can get it into the budget submission versus waiting till July uh and if we can get that we can introduce those ordinances which would make the money available in time to be able to use it uh before the cold
weather comes keep that in we have to do to increase our bond rating to Triple A interesting two things we have to increase our community income so the average household income has to rise and
uh we are because of the uh unfunded obligation under pension that we become liable for B that would have to be reduced so the state's been fully funding pension and they're lowering that Gap so one day that might benefit us but uh it's not our books our
reserves and we she and we get uh very good U um positive comments back on how we're controlling that uh but the other variables are uh who's in town how much do they make uh and and and that's
because that's an affordability question right do you have the were W all to increase taxes and that's what they look at is they understand costs are going up but can your your commun community sustain the ability to pay for those increases so they look at average uh
uh in as a factor the other is basically uh off balance sheet obligations which is primarily is the state we are we do not have an unfunded obligation because we pay everything 100% every year we have done that uh it's part but it's part of
the overload that goes on top of it from the state that goes into that calculation again it's not something that we have control over that prevent us from getting there beyond our specific
control close we're very close and I've argued because I look at other towns that are triaa and I look at where we're at and I keep on scratching my head and because I think we should get there we almost did we almost did uh but now that
we we moved up from dou A2 to a A1 uh we have to look at it over the next what's the difference in the rate time Triple A to uh you could see a quot of the point you see a quot of the point not unrealistic say a half you
could say Triple A you can say potentially half which is Meaningful which is very meaning well we we can continue to make this community an attractive place to live and attract people who that me want
want to live here which we have been seeing in the last couple years well yeah yeah um it takes a good school system it takes you know it takes a village to do that so a lot of things have to come into play so that's all everything that
we have any other comments before we we close so give me changes we need to get them I will remind you Friday would be ideal to get those and Beyond Friday it becomes really hard to get ready for so any changes that you're looking at um
please please review them closely and see what we can do okay that's good I don't see anyone from the public here uh so I'll entertain a motion to adjourn with our next meeting being 18th at 7M hi commission commission scarelli
hi hi mayor Kelly hi