All right. Thank you everybody. This is the town of Andover Board of Finance special meeting for Wednesday, May 7th. in reference to the budget year for 2025 2026. I think as you all know the budget failed at referendum yesterday. So as per the charter we will continue to work on the budget as the board of finance. Our job is to come up with the recommended budget. The budget will be bifurcated into two pieces which is the town budget and the AES budget per the per the town charter section 803. So that's what this meeting is all about to further that process. so we have a very simple agenda tonight. We will go ahead and call the meeting to order. So we'll call the meeting to order. Looks like 701 started and recite the pledge of allegiance. So I pledge allegiance to the flag United States of America for which it stands one nation under God indivisible for all. Thank you. So the first order of business is public speak. so we will go around to each member of the public as we can identify them on the Zoom meeting. and just ask again that you if you have anything
to add, you certainly don't need to, but if you have anything that you'd like to comment on, please feel free. try to keep your points brief. and again, if you want to just, I guess, positively comment on what somebody else has said or agree with them, just say that instead of restating the point, just for the sake of efficiency. So, Eric, I'm just going to go ahead and go according to my screen. So, I have Sarah Becker, but I'm guessing it's not Sarah there. Yes, it's Eric Becker. Can you guys hear me? Okay. do you have comments or no? Yes. I'm just making sure you guys can hear me. Yeah, I wanted to introduce myself.
I'm Eric Becker and the vice chair of the board of education. Kayn Greenhouse, the chair of the board of education asked for me to for for me to speak for her tonight as she's unable to attend. regarding the referendum, we wanted to mention that we we respect the voter's thoughts. It was a very clear result, close result but it's clear the community believes that the elementary school budget is too high. we know you have to make adjustments and we hope you strike a balanced approach. One thing we wanted to note is we saw that he passed their elementary school budget which had a 5% increase. we hope any changes that you make will ensure that the budget gets passed in the second goound here. and we as a board will continue to advocate for our students and our growing population. and we continue to ask for your support. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Eric. Okay. Going around in order. Jeff McGuire, I see you next. Hi. How is everybody? Can you hear me? Yep. We can hear you. listen, I I wanted to I apologize for not making the town meeting. I was I was traveling. I really wish I could have made that meeting. I have a couple points for you guys that I just want to make sure that we're we're all good with. One is that,
you know, the board of finances role is to really establish the amount of money that can be spent by the community. that includes the board of education and the the the town government. So, you know, you really can't tell the board of education how to spend its money. you can just tell the board of education how much money it has to spend and it's the same way related to the town, the same position that the board of finance is in. that's that's the main point that I wanted to sit there and address to the board. And then some points that I just want everybody to think about as we move forward. I know the board of finance or the last closed fiscal year, the board of education had a $400,000 under spend. That underspend was moved into the AES capital fund, which we all know is needed because there's a bathroom repair at the school that needs to get accomplished. But that goes to my financial side of my brain that sits there and says if they were underfunded by $400,000 in that fiscal year and were adding another $400,000 on top of that, that's an $800,000 increase from the previous, you know, not this current fiscal year, but the previous fiscal year. and how did we get to that number? That's a an extremely large number. I'm going to go to the other part that's that's had me considering and thinking about what we've doing is community. The prek program that was established in the community probably about five or six years ago has always been expressed would be self-funded. So that means no tax dollars would be spent on the prek program. so if grant funding has
decreased, that would mean to me that tuition should increase. And I'm not sure that we have all of the information necessary to sit there and deal with that from a board of education standpoint, but it is something that I do think the board of finance should be sitting there looking at. And and then my last thing is is really that, you know, it's really important for the town to balance its priorities, all of its fiscal priorities. you know, the funding of AES is critical to the long-term success of our of the town of Andover as a community, and we need to understand that. but you also have to realize that once budgets are set, it's incredibly difficult to make them go down. And I hope that we sit there and go backwards and we're we're considerate of all of the issues, but we have to be considerate of all the issues and the balancing the what is important for the town as we move forward. So I know you guys have a difficult job. I hope we're all respectful in this process because it's really important that you know we understand the value of AES and the value of what the board of education does for our community. And I'll leave it to you guys and hopefully we get the next budget passed. So, thank you. Thank you, Jeff. All right. Thanks. I have Diane Grineer. Yes. I I'd just like to say good luck to you all and Godspeed.
thank you. Mark, can you hear me? Yep. Okay. Sorry. so yes, it was very difficult yesterday. We did see 53% of the people versus 46% of the people with yeses and nos. It was pretty pretty tight. I guess there in terms of the yeses and the nos and I do know that we've looked at the questions and we do see that there are a fair number of people on both sides that think that the town budget is too high and that think that the school budget is too high. And it is a tough job. you guys have. I would like to speak just for a second to I do know that the town last year had a lot of needs and they did receive 16% increase over the year before which means this year even with a 0% increase they would be receiving 16% over the year before two years ago. I do know that our audit is almost complete for the town and yes, the town I mean the school did have unexpended funds from last year due to a number of factors including changes to students and special education. I do know that the town was also grateful enough last year and the year before to have a surplus as well. those two years combined were $400,000 on the town side as well according to the audit. So thankfully both the town has been great with spending and the school and with all of the other reserves that
have been given to both of them the forms of grants. So both have had surpluses in the past two years. that's not a sign of underfunding. That's a sign of changes that occur during the course of the year. It is not over or underfunding. things that were changed during the course of the year. As for preschool, I know that there are seats on the school readiness council. one includes the first selectman. if the first selectman were to attend those meetings, I wish this year we would get a better picture for everybody in the town of exactly how that funding occurs for school readiness, which will be called something else this year. But it is in fact a fact that there is not a
meager amount of tuition that comes in. there's $6,000 from each family that comes in and you will not see those salaries from preschool that are in the budget. they don't exist. They are funded separately through school readiness. So, moving forward, I know you guys have a tough job, but I do think that 46% to 53% last night showed that there are a lot of people in town concerned about the budget on both sides and that it's not just a school thing. So, thank you so much Okay, thank you Valerie. moving on. I see Scott Pan. Good, Mark. Thank you. Okay, thank you Scott and Cre. It's not just an Yeah, yeah, I see you there. I couldn't see you, so I'm just going by the name on the screen. I know and we we haven't figured out how
to change it. I also had Julia Havl with me to help her with the technology. I just want to say I was very disappointed in the results of last evening. I was curious to know how much my taxes would have gone up had that passed. So I looked at my I calculated my taxes for this year that I just finished paying. and that was $11,5944. Then I calculated with the new mill rate and that came out to $11,386.38. It was a matter of maybe $327 a year. I don't know that people are looking at the money and exactly how does it impact them. I I get and I really don't know that this budget is about money. when I saw that flyer in the River East on Friday, it was full of lies and falsehoods. And it was it was really, as far as I'm concerned, it was scandalous. There's no truth in it. And I think that the board of education and the town got a bad rap out of that. And I I mean the people that work for our town, whether they're teachers or in the school or they're people working on the roads, I mean, you got to you got to pay people today to living wage. And you're not going to be able to hire people if you don't have the money to hire them with. And I think that our town deserves better. And I mean, I'm willing to pay an increase of that much a year. It It's not that I don't think it's that fierce, but that's just my own opinion. and God bless you all and I appreciate your work you do and you can go on to the next
word. Do you have anything to say? Yeah, I was just going to say that with those questions that were along with the budget vote the you think the budget for the town or for the school was too much, too little or just right. I really don't know how accurate those are, how much of a representation they are of towns people because they they don't add up to the number of votes, the number of people that came in to vote. when the questions about the town budget came up to 639 people voting and that we didn't have that many people come in to vote.
So people must have voted for more than one thing saying it was both maybe too much and just right or something like that. So I don't think you can put a lot of stock in those answers that people did because the numbers don't add up. I was shocked by the fire in the river east. I thought it was designed to be inflammatory and get people upset. I would have liked to have seen documentation of who was responsible for it. and I can't believe that the school board has a million dollars. I mean, anybody in their right mind is going to say that can't be possibly be right because it stated that there was a million dollars surplus in the board of ed coffers, but apparently whoever wrote it didn't take into effect. are the numbers for the school board are checked regularly by a uditor and certainly that wouldn't happen. The people who put the budget together and the people and the majority of people on our boards and commissions take their jobs seriously and do their job with good
faith in the kind of government they'd like to see and the kind of people they know that their neighbors would like to see. So the whole thing was a bad move I think and it created a very sour note on the whole thing. Yeah, I you know I just want to say this is not this should really be discussion about the flyer. I get that it generates a lot of feelings. I didn't personally read it. Not interested. and so you know that that's just me though. But I this is really about what we need to do moving forward. So I would I don't want to I don't want to stop a public comment. It's important. But I do think we should keep focused on the on just the your your input about towards
the budget itself. Hey Mark, it's Joanne and I'm sorry to to interrupt you and I always appreciate your you know the way you run a meeting as well. I always say that to you but I don't mind if they touch on it a little bit if they want to. I I do agree that this meeting is you know we're going to be deciding on the budget or our next proposed budget. But if I think if towns people take the time, I always say this, I love when they take the time to come to a meeting and if they have an opinion, you know, as long as they don't go on and on. I agree. But we need to stay focused on the budget, not on a flyer, on an article. Right. Right. I mean, you did right. I just want to say that I always appreciate this is why I love to serve on a board. I don't need everybody to agree with me or or whatever, but I do want to hear just a little bit. But if if you feel like they're going on and on, then by all means. Well, it's not so much that. I just want to stay on topic. Sure. Got it. Thank you. I just wanted to give my two cents. Yeah. If I could say Bill, I would just like to include that I do think the flyer is on
topic. sorry to disagree with you, Mark, because I normally agree with you on everything, but I believe that this budget didn't pass because of this flyer. It is full of misinformation and lies, and it's slanderous. It is cowardly that the people who wrote this didn't even put their name. I'm sorry, but they didn't put their name on it. They said things about you, Mark. They said things about Caitlyn. They said things about Valerie. All of these things are slanderous and they have no basis in this type. You want to put out facts on your opinions. Okay, that's one thing. But slanderous information like this, there's no place for it. The people that put this out should be ashamed of themselves. And I believe they are ashamed because they didn't put their name on it. So that tells me
they're ashamed of what they did and this stuff has no place in this town. I can't believe this actually happened. But it did affect the outcome of this election. Mark, this piece of paper right here did and it was wrong and it's full of wrong information. So I'm embarrassed for that and I'm embarrassed for the things I said about you, about Caitlyn, and about Valerie. It was wrong. So anyways, people, you know, when I think about the job that you've done for many years, Mark, not fair. When I think about Valerie, she was hired to do a job, educate her kids. She wants the best education for her kids. She's doing the best she can. And her reward for that is people slandering her name. Okay. She's got no place in this in this agenda, but I think it is important to say that this was a bad piece that affected the outcome of the budget. So, all right. Well, let's let's get back to public comment if we could. So, appreciate it. So, moving along, if we would. I have a Terry Smith. Any input? Yes, thank you, Mark. Mr. D. Rogers, thank you so much for stating what you just did. When I saw that flyer, I was so upset and Valerie and I were very upset about it. it is totally inaccurate. the numbers were all wrong and I am I I just want I don't want to dwell on it but I just wanted to say that we are all upset about it and it it's just such a slap in the face. I hope that we can get a fair budget for both sides for both the town and the
board of ed and and I and I'll do whatever the board of ed and Valerie need me to do. Thank you. Okay, thank you Terry. have Marcy next. Hi. actually I I think it I think it would be important for the board of finance to discuss the flyer because you know some people are saying it's not factual and apparently the person who did it thinks that it is and it it does make a big difference. I mean, if you if you look at a possible surplus that they already have of 900,000 and then increasing the budget, that their operating budget is 3.5 million, but they're asking for 4.5 million. I'm not sure, but I would like to know because if you add those up, it sounds like they're overbudgeted by 2 million. So that's pretty significant. and so if if we're if the flyer is wrong, I'd like to know. I mean, I think that it would be important to, you know, instead of sitting there waving your hand and saying I think it's wrong, maybe it is right, maybe it is wrong. It would be nice to know. and you know, there's also I get concerned when I hear you know, parents say that, seniors don't care about kids. and that's why they voted vote these budgets down
because they don't care. Well, there nothing could be further from the truth. the reason why these budgets don't pass is because there's no there's no transparency. You know, you hear things about the preschooler parents paying $6,000 and we're paying $23,000. I mean, what's where's the difference? So, you know, there's a lot of there's a lot of, you know, hard feelings and I think that it's important that you address all of these things factually so that we can make an informed decision. I know it's really hard and I appreciate everything that you guys do. So, thank you. Hey, Mark, can I just counterpoint that because I think it's important. Marcy, we always Thank you for bringing that up again. I want to hear everyone's opinion. I'm of the vein that I I would never want to slander a person in order to make my point. And I'm not here to judge whoever put the flyer out. I have no idea who did, who didn't,
whatever. I mean, I feel like tonight we will be discussing, at least I came ready. Everybody that knows me knows I come ready every single meeting to discuss the budget, to come out with my points, to say where I think we can cut, to think what's fair. I don't think it's our job to figure out who did this flyer. I mean, I'm sure we all have our opinions and think, you know, I mean, there's there's a way to go about things in a way not. I'm sure here though to ready to talk about points in the budget and how we can get better with having the true facts. but I'm I'm with Mark on the the one fact I want to hear from everybody. So, thank you for your input, but I'm not here to decide what to do about that flyer that wound up in the, you know, River East. And if it got everyone's attention, it did. There's ways you can do that. You publicly speak at meetings. You make sure whether you're voted down all the time, you make sure you stand up as the only person, even if you're on the board of finance
and talk about things. So, that's all I I don't know if we're going to go into the flyer, per se, is my I would say no. I I would think most of the people, right? I don't think that's our job to go into the flyer. I'm ready to talk about the budget for sure. Yeah. You know, and find out what's where could be. Thank you. But that needed to be addressed, Mark, because it it did opened up. Thank you. Can I just say one more quick thing? Make it quick, please. Just I I know that every people are probably afraid because I I sense fear on people on the boards and also people in town. And I know myself whenever I say something I feel like I get I get backlash. So anyway, that could be why that the person whoever or people didn't, you know, claim who they were. That's all. Okay. All right. I have Ela Burchchart or Buchar. Yeah. Hi. yeah, not to harp on it, but I was going to say I I believe that the vote failed. it was a resounding no because of that flyer just as Bill mentioned. you know these facts and figures were just thrown out there and the issue the the big issue is is that people don't know if it's right or wrong. and and unfortunately people don't take the time to follow all the budgets and go to the board of ed meetings and understand what that that's all about and they don't take the time to ask questions of stuff that they don't understand. But when somebody goes ahead and and a yellow flyer goes ahead and puts out to
people who really don't have any information at all to base their opinion except for, you know, the taxes are going up a little bit to all of a sudden have that put in their face, then it's just going to make them mad and they're going to say, "Well, hell no. That doesn't look right. That's bad." But if that's the first time that they're seeing any information about this, whether it be correct or incorrect without any background or or ability to ask questions 4 days before the referendum, that's that's not good. So I I do know what what appears here is people need to in our town meetings really get down to the tedious explanation of things because that's
what people all of a sudden need to know. That's it. Thanks. Okay. Thank you. Ela Scotty, I'll go to you. It look like you popped in a little there. So hi. I I think I want to say that I'm hoping the board doesn't make drastic changes to the budget based on what, as everyone is pointing out, is probably a lot of false information. The vote was probably, we don't know for sure, but probably affected by a serious amount of misinformation. So, I'm hoping the board takes a very measured response and doesn't do drastic cuts because the first vote failed. I think u first vote failed because of this flyer that came out with no time for response or corrections. That's it. Okay. All right. Thank you, Scott. running through looks like Leanne Hutcherson, you're the next on the screen. I am all set. Thanks. Okay. Thank you, Leanne. Linda, Derek, So, I'll swing back and see if we get you back. Okay. Now, I have four phone numbers. I'm going to read out the last four numbers. if it's you try to unmute yourself and you can add any comment that you have. The first one I have is the number ending in well I guess I'll read the seven digits. It's
9896988. Okay, you're still on mute. So I'm going to move on to the next number. 7425475. It looks like you're unmuted, so you can speak if you have any comment. this is Leanne Hutchinson. no. I still don't, but thank you for reading off the number. Okay. Thanks. next number on the board is 6804212. Hi, Mark. And the board of finance, this is Shannon Len. Yes, I just have a couple quick things to say. Good evening. I don't envy your position. I echo what Scott Soyette said. I hope you do take a measured approach. I've lived in this town for more than 20 years and I absolutely acknowledge that we needed to invest in the infrastructure in this town because it had been woefully underfunded for many, many years. So, I appreciate that the town voted to give the town an increase of 16% last year. We now need to invest in our school because we've had a significant increase in our student population. we are not overbudgeted. As Valerie pointed out, things happen during the school year that enable us to save money. I don't think we should be punished for having a surplus. We have
three very large capital projects for which we don't have the money and we have capital projects for which we don't have a fund until it was finally funded with our surplus and with money from the town that the board of finance generously created a fund for us which has been really necessary. the final thing I want to say it was kind of already said by Elaine. I am so frustrated and I've said this for the past 10 years that people at the very last minute who have never participated in the budget process come into the budget process with misinformation and then also accuse
people who have created the budget of not being transparent, of not being honest. it's just so frustrating. We held two, we offered two townwide meetings for people to be informed about the board of education budget this year. One was not attended by any anyone whatsoever. The board of education sat in the gym by ourselves. Excuse me. Melissa Latesca came, one of our teachers. and the other was a workshop that wasn't intended by anybody online either. that is is just not what should be happening in a democracy if people want to then criticize or vote down a budget. And the final thing I'll say is I thought it was indicative at
the town meeting on the budget that only three people out of the more than hundred were there voted against the budget or would have voted against it to move it forward a referendum. And then with the results yesterday, I just find that very skewed and don't really understand what happened. So again, as I started off with, I think that port tends to suggest to the board of finance a very measured approach in reducing the budgets both for the town and for the board of education. Good luck tonight. Thanks very much. Mark, were you talking because you're muted? Thank you. Sorry, John. yeah. The next number I have is 977-58000. If you want to unmute yourself, we you make any public comment. Hi. Sarin St. Rock and, I was lucky to follow Shannon and she, clearly stated everything I was feeling. So, thank you. I was fortunate to follow her. so nothing further to comment at this time. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Someone's hands up. Yep. See that? I think it's somebody who didn't get to comment. so we have 9896988. You have to unmute yourself. We can't unmute you. We're not hearing anything. I'm going to go back to Linda. Derek, Linda, I don't know if you had the opportunity to if you have any comment or you can unmute yourself. We'll need them. Okay. one. Okay. Well, I think unfortunately we're going to have to call the end to the public comment. hopefully folks didn't want to comment that we're muted and couldn't unmute yourself, but we do need to move on. so, we'll go ahead and open the budget discussion. So, all of you the public,
you're welcome to stay. please put yourself on mute just so we avoid any background noise. Oh, sorry. So, we now move on to the budget workshop. yeah, Bill say I know it's not Sarah Becker, but if if you're not speaking, if you could turn the video off, it slows down the overall and I get a lot of pixelation. Thank you, Mr. Becker. If you're not talking, if you're not on the board, it'd be great if you just turn your your video off. It helps the overall speed. Okay. Thank you. All right. All right. Thank you. So for the board of finance I would suggest we proceed we obviously have a bifurcated budget. So we have the town budget and we have the school budget. The school budget is a single line item. We're not going to address any particular we obviously cannot change any line items within the school budget. but it's a single line item and obviously I think it's the the most contentious part of this overall budget. So, I would propose that we tackle the town budget first. we have some corrections to make there. I'm thinking this will probably be a little more straightforward. but I'm willing to entertain other suggestions from the board. Mark, we really should just be able to freely speak. I feel like you sometimes direct us and this is a really important meeting and I so appreciate everything you do but I'm feeling very
directed and then I get anxious that I'm not going to be able just speaking from the heart you know yes so thank you for addressing I don't want to jump on your thought you know I think we all should have a moment we're all on you know you know going around whenever you say but thank you that was the main thing I know that I spoke at the town meeting and brought up a series of corrections and mistakes that I found. So before we do anything, you know, not trying to take away from everybody else, I'm hoping we can do that. so my one motion would be if I, you know, in order to keep things flowing along, you know, don't know how everyone else feels, but I feel confident everybody's been copied on the emails. it was found that there was a
really big error in the health insurance estimations. We've all been copied on the emails. So, I feel confident especially since there's less employees that will be covered now and I'm not even take for now and I'm not even taking that into consideration, but I'd like to make a motion to reduce the health insurance benefit line. I'm sorry that I don't have it in front of me. Can you look at the detail? Joanne, do you want me to share the Thank you. Yeah. Hopefully my eyesight I might have to shut off and look real close. But the one thing that There you go, Rob. That's what I'm going to be doing. That's what I look like an idiot when I do it, but yeah. Well, I'll shut off and I'll have my little magnifying glass in front of me and I can read it off. I also have a copy, but I know which motion I'd like to make for that because we've all been told it was overfunded. Yeah, it's a very specific amount. I made the corrections in the spreadsheet earlier so we can take a look at it and we can make a very specific change. Oh, I was going to motion it just like 1,000 more than but if you have the specific I'll look at hat like I was saying while we're getting it you know unfortunately or
or I don't even Okay, so this is the healthcare and Murf tab. Okay, so hopefully you're seeing that. so I'll zoom in a little bit. So the the the issue this is the corrected version by the way. So the issue just for background is that these numbers here about the health insurance cost for singles families and and and two people were incorrect originally in the spreadsheet that we were working with earlier and the dental cost was also incorrect. There was a lot of incorrections Mark. There was a lot wrong. I could have dug and dug and dug but just for the public to know. Thank you. Okay. Well, these are the amounts that I believe as I if I understand the issue, these are the amounts that were stated and they should have been populating the table up here. Correct. Okay. When you look at the original calculation, it was at 239,954. Roughly, it was this corrected calculation is an amount of 210,577.
so there's a difference of 29,376. So that is about that lines up more or less with what the treasurer had said if if we had made the corrections that that would have been the correction. So if we go over to the main budget Mark thank you for doing all of that. If everybody just remembers for the sake of saying it, that night I made a motion. I had come up with a fast math figure of 29,000 about incorrect, which is almost spot on. Yeah. and then I made a motion of 25,000, but I don't know. I'll let you continue. Yeah. Yeah. I would say we know what we know what the number should be. It should be this 210,577. So, we could just go ahead and use that. Okay. Did is the number that's included in there the former I don't mean and I don't want to talk about anything negative but the other number might have included the health care cost for the former senior center director. I mean we can keep and we can keep a number in there. I'm not going to go that have to replace that position Joan. So I don't think we want to go that deep. probably not going to change. My only motion was going to be 30,000. I'm fine with making an exact motion. Sorry. Thanks. Of course. Right. So, do you want to go back to that other page, Mark, while I see the amount? Yeah. Yeah. So, I think what you want to
do is is make a motion to change the specific line item to a specific dollar amount. Absolutely. Oh, understood. I just needed the 2937. Oh, you mean you want the total? You just want the total. Yeah, we don't want to talk about differences here. I think I think pro probably what you want to do is make a motion that you know this this line item 1412152100 the health and dental insurance be set at this level 210,744. Okay. I would like to make a motion that we set the health and dental insurance line the 141 215 52 100 to is that 2105774 4 cents. Y I mean I can see it. I just didn't know. Yeah, that's the right one.
Yep. I second. Okay, Rob seconds. We have any discussion? good work Joanne on finding that. That's Yeah, absolutely. I mean before the meeting, right? It was it was totally frenetic, but it is it is impressive. You were you were, you know, within 500 bucks of what the answer was. I just wish we had had it was just really unfortunate timing and everyone was like, what is going on? And it was just I know that I'm glad in a sense the blessing in disguise here. We can fix it. Yeah, that's all I feel back to referendum. The one thing I wanted to say which was it doesn't matter now. We're going to get to this end result. But there had there had been a correction because we knew it went from the 8% to the 7%. So this was really looked at. Remember there was emails when we knew it went from 8% to 7. But listen, we're fixing it now. We're fixing it. Let's just move on. We don't have to go backwards and well I came ready. I'm I don't take it lightly. No, but you're right. Further discussion. Yeah, I'll call for a vote. All those in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Okay. Hearing none, the motion passes. The line item is now set where that was. Okay. Hey, do we have any other action on the town budget? Mark, I don't
know. This is on a I do. Oh, go ahead. Hold on. can I talk now, Mark? Oh, yeah. Go ahead, Kim. Okay. Thank you. I'd like for us to talk about Christine Hercules, salary, the $5,000 cut that we made. Is that an option to discuss tonight? Possibly. Every line item is an option here. Okay. This is just a bundle of line item. So, I I've had some time to think about that and I have some concerns about that cut. I think that, you know, keeping really good staff in place is important. It's expensive to go out and search for a new person, get them on board, train them. So, I would appreciate the board of finance looking into that and possibly restoring that $5,000. I'm not sure the process. You all should just make a a motion, Kimberly. Okay. I'd like to make a motion that we restore the $5,000 back to Christine Harkles. I second it. That was going to be one of my motions. We talked about it in executive session if you remember. Okay. So, so what I would
say is what we need to do is identify the line item in the in the budget and set the amount that we want. Okay. It's so tiny for me even with glasses on. So I I'm not sure but so the treasurer salary correct assistant right it's right there Mark assistant 109 it was the stipend amount yes so you want to make a motion to to put $5,000 $5,000 back yes okay so so that if I'll read that back to you and let me know if this is okay. So this is this is line item 10910151000 the assistant treasurer stipend. So you're proposing to increase that to $5,000 correctly what I'm proposing I think. Okay. Do we have a second? Rob seconded it I think. Or no I'm sorry. Jo seconded it. Second. I didn't but I Yeah I did second it. Okay. Thank you. All right. So we have a second. Do we have further discussion? I would like to since since it was made a motion, I thought this was something that was discussed in executive session. with all of the thoughts coming out about, you know, the way we we had mot took it off the first time was the
way it was listed on the spreadsheet was inaccurate because this person was a union person. So, I'm all for putting it back in as long as we don't have that same language on the spreadsheet, which goes against union principles. And clearly, there was going to be anou written because this person does do additional work, is learning to be a treasurer and all of those things. So, I support Kim in this. It just needed to be done the correct way. And and I'd like to also add though to that that I think that we've had really good conversations with the select men about the decisions that they make and I think moving forward I'd like to keep that conversation going with them. It's important that we talk with them about things and how they make decisions and why things are the way they are. I I would it's really important to me to continue those conversations with them. Okay. Any other comments? Okay, let's go ahead and take a vote. All those in favor say I. I. I. I. Any
opposed? Any abstensions? Okay, the motion passes. I'll go ahead and add that right in here. Direct ad. That's not a formula. So, 5,000. So, okay. Thank you. further motions on the line items in the budget. Mark, I wanted to bring up adding revenue back in. I know that there was a decrease with the ECS funding of that $89,000 that was taken away. I haven't seen the revised spreadsheet that you have tonight. Was it just updated and put back in? This the only change here is that I I updated the healthcare and dental. Okay, great. So I didn't literally 15 20 minutes before the meeting. No, perfect. No, I just want to make sure that I didn't miss something. No, there wasn't anything distributed. So I didn't want to, you know, so I know that we had reduced this will help the overall budget as well if we now know that that I thought it was 89,000, right? It was 89,000. Yep. We can put that back in if we're receiving it and that Eric, can you confirm that? Yeah, just I think it makes sense to have Eric. Yeah, of course. Sure. So, can I absolutely Sorry, my mic is hiding. I can't absolutely guarantee it's going back in the budget. We only want guarantees, Eric. Right. I it seems probable because the legislature overall seems to support it. the governor is kind of opposed to it, but you know more than likely it will be restored, but no guarantees. So if I were a betting man, I would bet that it get restored. Yeah, it does sound like it's
going to go back, but it could be June before we know. So, you're you're proposing that we would go to the basically back to the budgeted amount of 2000 or sorry, 2 million. I I had thought that Eric spoke to this at our last board of finance meeting and that it was coming back to us. that was my either that or the budget meeting. Yeah. Yeah. One of one of our many meetings. So, are you going to make a motion to add that back in, Joanne? The 89,000. I would like to make a motion to add the 89,000 back into the ECS. Sorry, I need to get close. 89,040 ECS funds. I'll second that. Okay. Okay. So, just to clarify then, was that you, Rob, that seconded? No, that was Bill. I think it was me, Bill. Okay, Bill. Sorry. just to clarify,
what that would do is take us back to the previous year budget funding of 2,4,782. Correct. Okay, we have further discussion. All right, I guess I'll call for a vote. All those in favor say I. I. I. Anyone opposed? Is anyone abstaining? Okay, thank you. We'll go ahead and make that change. Mark, could you just scroll down to the next revenue section when you're done with that, too? Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Does that help? Yeah. I just wanted to look at it. You'll excuse me. I'm going to save my work here. Good job. one other thing that I think we had a change last minute u after we'd already published the the proposed budget is I think Eric you got the final number for the state trooper. that was in the last budget. It was okay. Yep. I mean, that's not a really a final number. No, that's just a year ahead best guess from the state police. Okay, got it. Okay, so it doesn't bear changing here then. Short short story. Mark. Yeah. I mean, if we're at a point, I don't know if anyone else is going to bring I don't want to monopolize it. If Oh, go ahead. Nobody's got anything pending. So, I mean, I feel like we do have to overall listen to I truthfully don't think I feel like the budget might not have passed regardless of the flyer. I think we've heard a lot of So, I'm just going to say
that really quick. So, just from comments I know there was letters written to the river besides that, you know, people that brought a lot of good points up. So, I feel that I would like to try to make a couple more changes and listen to the town's people that did vote. So, that's where I'm coming from. So, I would like to on the town side budget, Dylan, just to clarify, that's what we're on right now. Can we talk a little bit more about the town side of the budget, please? Oh, yeah. No, no, sorry. I'm still on the town side. Okay. Just making sure that's what we're doing. Okay. But you're talking about
the board of education budget. Okay. No, I'm so sorry. I just mean that a lot of the public and who are here tonight commented that they think the the budget in general, you know, didn't pass. You know, there was a yes or a no because and I truly feel like there was a lot of people that weren't going to pass this budget regardless. So, I want to state that for the record. and everybody's allowed their opinions. I'm still going to like y'all tomorrow. It doesn't matter. You know, that's the way I operate. but I think so I'd like to try to take into factor what the town has spoken. So I would like to and what we did learn in this process was that because the town attorney came on one of our meetings and and and came in and and let us have it. But one of the things that he did say and that I learned was that we are allowed even on the town side Mark to make just a we don't have to go specific line item like if I want to look at a department so that they can choose where they want a reduction. So that's where I'm coming from. He said we are allowed to do an overall reduction. so I'm going to go forward again listening to the town's people and make a motion. If you could go down to public works, please. I'm going to look closer. Okay. So, the way I'm reading it in the proposed budget, the public works is 45711341. Yes. Yep. So, I'm going to just propose an overall reduction of
$25,000 to the public works department and let them decide where they would like that reduction. Okay. Does anybody want to second that motion? second a question or do you want to wait? I'm looking for a second, Rob. Yeah, I understood. Well, I guess we can continue discussion if we don't have a second on that motion. Yeah. So, I can I have a Wait a minute. There was no mot There was no second to that motion. So, there's no There's no second to the motion. No action. We're back in a general discussion of the budget. Yeah. So, yeah. Can I make a can I make a point? Hold on. I think Liz was asking or or or Robert, did you have something specific or was it about that motion? It was just I I couldn't remember and I was just going to ask for clarification if anybody remembers whether we had reduced the public works budget at all. I know we made the cut to the road funding that I hated doing. Yeah, we kept the road improvement fund be. Yeah, I don't think we made any changes to No, I proposed several changes as small as 2,500, but you know, they didn't. So, this this is the requested budget, you know, without us having cut. That's that's all I was just for my own memory. Correct. Yeah, they didn't make any that was it. All right. So, I'm going to go in order of think of people who wanted to talk. Go ahead, Kimberly. I'd like to talk about the road
budget and possibly increasing it. So, you're talking about the the fund for the road improvement. Road improvement. Yes. Yeah. It's right here. So, the original request or or last year, I'm sorry, was at 410,000. overall, we took 50,000 out. Correct. Yep. So, I'd like to make a motion that we restore the $50,000 to the road budget. One second. Okay. Liz, was that you, Liz? Yes, that was Liz. Okay. Thanks. Okay. Discussion. may I marker? Can I go ahead? Go ahead, though. So, I'm I'm with what you guys are doing there. I understand because roads are something I'm passionate about. I lived on a terrible road for a long time. and I would support something maybe midway between the 50 that we took off. because listen, if we've made some nice gains here with with what Joanne found and but we're starting to add a lot of stuff back in and I just don't want this to fail on the next time as people, you know, discussed. It'd be nice if we get this budget to pass in the next time through and if we start adding a lot of money back in. So, as much as I would love to say put 50,000 back in because I would really love to, I I would like to see us do something maybe a little a little bit less, a restore maybe 25,000, but I know that's a separate motion, but I just wanted to make my thought clear on that. I think that that's fair, Bill. I appreciate the conversation. You know, we need to talk
about it. Okay. May I make I'm sorry. I just saw Joan's name. Go ahead, Louise. I've spoken already. You go next. Go ahead, Louise. Okay. Thank you, Joanne. yeah, I just want to let everybody know regarding the results of the the election, the majorities did state that the budget was right on 360 and then two high was 229. So, I think that the town does feel that the town budget is kind of where it should be. So, I kind of agree with what Bill's saying. If we're going to do something, we do it halfway. Okay. Yeah. I was going to say the same thing about the town budget that actually 64% of the people said the town budget is too low or just right. So, if you like add those numbers together, that's 64%. So that's interesting. I think yeah, you know, somewhere in the middle there might be the way to go. I could support either way. I think it's a good conversation. So Mark, if I may, now that everybody's speaking, it was hard for us to make some of these cuts at the beginning of the budget season. Like Bill said, and I want the public out there to know that even though we're seeing this amount, these are funds. So there's already a big like picture of bank account. So this isn't the end all of this. This is adding to the big bank account which will be over a million
dollars. So I appreciate Bill because I know how much he is in favor of of road so it's really hard for him to to do that. So I think the logic is there. You know we're we're on this board to do a job and every year we kind of have to split it around. So this was the year that we did decide to take I think my first proposal was a h 100,000 which didn't go for it you know and trying to lower a budget for like the people that are on a fixed income and you know you look at the bottom line and it's it's only a smaller increase but that's because of the math that's going into it and the things that are be putting against it. Whatever we decide on is what the town is marrying themsself to every year. So again, I think it's hard to put back in after you've taken out and it was hard for us to make these choices. So of course, I mean, everyone knows I'm not going to be in favor because I looked at the big picture. There's a huge fund that they're going to be using. They actually have two
funds that they can do road work with and it gets spent every year though. I think it gets right. But Jay starts it in the like this time of year when it gets warm, you know, which is great. and they do all of, you know, I I'm not the expert on this, but they do all the road work they can, then they, you know, get their funding in July. They keep going and he has a good system going. So, that's all I don't want to bore people with my my voice. There was a reason we only took away 50,000. We're not leaving them with the total that's there. There's already an amount in the big bank account that they can use. So, that's my So, can we meet in the middle?
I I just want to add one more thing to that and I and you know Joanne you and I are on the same page I think here but it you know when when when Scott talked about what it costs to pave you know like one one mile of road you know that money that we have in the pot wouldn't even pave one mile of road. So there's 23 I think miles of road in town. So again, it was a painful cut and I kind of again would support something giving some back but not keeping it where it was because I know there's a these roads went to total disrepair for a long time and I don't want them to go back to that. I want to make sure there's enough money every year to make sure the the roads are maintained at the level they are now. And I and I believe all the roads in town that are main right now at a good level at a good spot and I hate to see them get, you know, slide backwards again like they did for many, many years. So again, I'm kind of in the middle of maybe restoring 25,000 or something like that. So that's all I'll say. Rob, I think you did you have something to add? Yeah, just just I'll try to be really brief. you all know I hated this cut when I proposed it. I, you know, if I had my brothers, I'd restore the full 50, but we just had a
budget fail. So, I'm a little wary, a little leery of we've put some things back in. Yes, we've got some good stuff on the revenue side and we and we found the 30,000 in savings thanks to Joanne on the healthcare spending. so if we do anything, I would also agree with, you know, kind of a 25,000 partial restore, not the full amount. And I think there's a case to to leave it grit our teeth for one year. and, you know, I I'm very much with you, Bill, philosophically on the roads. I I completely agree with you. I I think they could survive a one-year 50k hit, but that's just a gut feel. So, I I'm with you guys. I I what I'll go with what the board wants to do. but I
don't I don't think it's a great look if we just go through this budget and what we're doing is adding things. Yeah. After we had a budget fail. So, you know, that's where Okay. All right. Anybody else? And I just wanted to say say don't forget there was a surplus on the town side last year. We have a contingency fund. if they are doing so great and getting things done with the roads and such and they're running out of money. I mean, there is ways to get a little bit more. That's why I support I thought the 50,000 was very you know, conservative is the word I'm looking for. So, that's it. I think everybody's spoken. Can we anybody can we call for a vote or anybody have anything else to add? Okay, just to remind you, we're voting on restoring that $50,000 so that the line item for road improvement would be back to $410,000 as for the funding of the road improvement fund. All those in favor say I am. Is that Louise? I'm sorry. Kim, I believe. Okay. Sorry. That's okay. Well, I'll I'm on I I'll say I Okay, Kim and Liz. All those opposed I sorry. Yeah. So, that looks like Rob, you're muted. I'm muted. Yeah, I was in. No, I hear Liz. I hear you, Liz. I hear Liz. Yeah. No, thank you. No, Louise. No, I said sorry. No, she's not. Okay. Okay. So, Louise, were you a yes or a no? No. Okay, Rob, you are a no. Correct. Bill, you are a no. No. Yes. Correct. Okay. So, and and I'm a no. So, so that's And who who am I missing? Did I? Joanne,
you're a no. I'm a no. Okay. So, the motion fails. Five to two. I'd make I'd like to make a motion that we restore $25,000 to the road fund. Okay, we have a second. Louise seconds. Thank you. further discussion. I think we kind of all spoke. I mean, I I'll say up front, I'm going to vote no just because I feel like we need to pass a budget and I'm not comfortable adding money into what we had as a failed budget. And I am a huge fan of funding the roads better than we are. But, we already had down people speak and I'm I'm not in favor of adding a lot of money back in, but I appreciate the sentiment. I personally would like to see it in. So, anyone else? Okay, we'll call for a vote. All those in favor say I. I. I. It looks like Bill, Rob, Louise, Kim,
Liz, how about you? Yep. I Okay. And are those opposed? I motion passes. I'm consistent. I'm No, no, no. I just I just I'm cracking up with the I versus nay thing. It has nothing to do with my word. It's just that the I and Nay thing is drive it was driving me crazy. Sorry. Nay. Nay. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. The correct response is is nay or on the Yeah. I just think it's important that we see the progress move forward. So yeah, I agree, Kim. Thank you. I don't disagree. All right. Thank you. I think it's a good thing. I hope we get this passed. So, okay. Thank you. Made that change. Any other adjustments to the town budget? Mark, I'm I I'm not sure about this what I'm about to say, but if there was
a town surplus of, and I'm not sure if it's been verified so much, but somewhere around $300,000, I think we did we use 190,000 of that surplus in this budget. Is that what we did? No, the surplus typically we we need to it typically rolls into the general the general fund. Okay. The fund balance. Did we Eric? Am I correct there? I thought Okay. Eric, could you clarify that we use some fund balance against it? I think Eric will speak. Yeah, sure. Sorry about that. I didn't realize I was on mute. So, essentially the way it works is any monies that are unspent automatically roll into the fund balance. What you do every year is you make a decision on the mill rate calculation page. how much of that fund balance you are going to, if any, are you going to allocate to offset taxation the next year? That's why I sent around the thing about you know you as a board ultimately coming up with
some kind of policy on how much of a fund balance you want to keep and what things do you want to consider as part of the actual fund balance which essentially stays as the emergency reserve for the town. I see. So we did choose to use 19. we choose to use $190,000. Yeah, correct. In there. And I'm just wondering in in trying to get this budget passed, can we increase that at all or is that is, you know, dangerous? Does it not confirm the amount that was actually in surplus or I we're far enough along in the audit process to know that there was roughly a $200,000 or $400,000 surplus on the town side. that was around 260,000 in surplus revenue and the rest was under expenditure on the town side. So 140ish or under expenditure two I'm sorry off the top of my head it's somewhere in that category. I can probably try to look it up real quick. Okay. No ballpark is for me. But that gives you So could we increase that that line I guess to help with a mill rate and so the unexpended fund balance I if memory serves from when from way back when the whole idea is that the state sort of guidance target is 10% right of your operating budget peranom so if you have a $10 million budget you want a million dollars in reserve I think I think it went up though didn't it Eric actually the GFA says you should maintain two full months of operating funds. which for us which equates to basically around 17%. but they also say that as a town you can consider you should
basically the the reason why they think towns should have individual policies on this is some towns have more exposure. Let's say you were your town was on St. Andreas fall you would probably want to consider give have considerably more money than that in the bank and the same thing if you were a coastal town. So it takes into account the risk, but on average they're suggesting that 17% number, but in our case, we can take into account some of the money that we have in the permanent funds because let's be honest, if you're covered, right? Yeah. rock solid emergency, you as a board have the ability to pull money from any permanent fund the town
has and allocated towards emergency research. So, I think we can operate instead of at 17% unexpended fund balance at a number lower than that. But I don't think I'm the guy that tells you. I think you guys as a board have to decide what number you want going forward. Do you know the balance, Eric? Yeah, just I knew you were gonna ask me that. I think the balance is around 1.6 million right now. I don't know how my calculator 1.6 million, right? So, you know, if you think about a basically a $13 million budget and multiply that by 17%. we're definitely under that threshold. but I think we can consider some of these other factors and probably stay roughly where we are overall. But I also think that's a board decision, not a Eric decision. No, for sure. And again, Eric, for sure, but your your knowledge of explaining that was helpful just now. So, right. So, the 17% it's like 2.2 million if you if you base it off Yes. $13 million budget. Yes. So, I'm actually I'm happy to hear that they changed that because I always
thought the 10% was too low. So, that Yeah. But in theory, they were almost threatening to penalize you if you get too much beyond that. Right. Well, that was the whole discussion number of years ago, and that's what I was remembering. you know, targeting your back one town way out there and then get get shorted on your ECS funding or something. Should we wait until we're finished with everything and see where we stand and then decide because I remember bringing up this fund balance question. Yeah. You know, at the end of our process because I kind of wanted to lower it for the taxpayers, too, but I was voted down at the time. So, I think it's great that Bill brought it up again. well before we go on to the education portion Joan I was just hoping that we could you know no I hear you but is this something but that that will affect the amount if we if we make a change to the education line it'll it will it probably is going to make a huge difference. That's all I meant is right where do we stand when we're done with all of our changes and then see if we want to help
the taxpayers even more and add more in. It's just my thought, but I'm whatever the board wants to do. Yeah. So, just just what I'm typing here, just a little working sheet. So, the 1.6 million is what Eric estimates the current balance is. If we were to fund it at 17%, we would need to increase the fund balance by about $128,000, not a problem. If we got the surplus we have, so that sounds like that's even with the use of the fund balance to offset taxes at the current rate. If we were to split the difference maybe between 17% and 12 and a half or I did that I didn't do that right. Was that 13 and a half%. Mark, are you basing the 17 off of amount raised by taxation or total expens? No, no, no. This is the this is the estimate the proposed fund balance based on a two-month the 17% that the state Okay. This is if we were going to follow that two months worth of expenditures in the fund balance. This is what the fund balance should be roughly. See, we cut that back to This is why I'm asking is because I came up with 2.2 million. So, I'm trying to figure out where I went wrong. I don't know. This is This is the bottom. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm talking about total expenditure. That's 13 million, not 10. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, Eric. Yes. I just heard that somebody is in the waiting room trying to get into the meeting. Is it too late to let somebody in or No. nope. Let me do that real
quick. Sorry, I was not paying attention to the waiting room. That's okay. Thanks. Sorry to interrupt. Let them in right now. Thanks. Not Nope. You're multitasking. Yeah, good catch, Rob. Yeah. So, the 17 that would make more sense. 2.2 million. And even even if we split the difference from 10%, it's 1.6. 7. So it's a little higher than we are now. Right. So again, just like Eric said, that's something to consider. What do we as a town want to have in reserve? Right now that now that it seems like, you know, back then, you know, this discussion would have been different five years ago, right? When or whatever it was when we were told basically if you have more than 10% you put a target on your back, they're going to cut your funding. You know, that kind of thing. If that's changed, then yeah, we we absolutely should think about whether do we want 13, 14, 15, something in the air. What this is telling me, this little sort of quick calculations we're doing, what this suggests to me is that whatever changes we might make on on using fund balance should be small. That would be my take, right? So currently, if I'm just looking at this on the fly, so so general So, we're looking at 1.87, but then we're subtracting 100 190,000 from that by what we're putting into the budget for this year. So, yeah, that's 1.6 something. So, somewhere in there. So, we're really We're we're 13% roughly. Roughly. Yeah.
With the current one. Okay. But we also have a fair bit of money in, you know, the the regular non- major, you know, all the other capital reserve funds. So on any given day, you know, at some times of the year, we've drawn the public works the the road work fund way down. but we might have money in a bridge and covert fund which we could tap in an emergency. It would screw up future planning, but we could do that. So, we certainly don't need the 2.2. It's got to be, you know, you guys have to at some point have a discussion of of and set a policy on what you want to maintain and then you can figure out how much to put back in each year. So, I guess I we go back to what you said earlier, Joanne. We got to see what happens on the education side. Then we look at the whole number and then we can make a decision in what percentage we want to keep there. Makes sense. I like that idea too, Bill. Yeah, I I didn't quite understand what you're saying at
first, but now I do. Thank you. Okay. can I just quick just quickly before we move on? So, so far the net of the changes we've made between adding back in ES education cost share money between fixing 29,000 almost $30,000 fix. So, that's about 120 in the positive and then we tapped back on 30,000 in expenditure. Correct. The 25 and the and the 5,000. Right. Right. Correct. Am I missing anything? That is that I think that's all we've done. Right now we're netting out to a 90,000ish savings back. Correct. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Just for so everybody's kind of got that in their head as we go. Yep. Right. Because we added how much did we add back in tonight, Rob? Sorry. Thank you. We added in 120. Say, right. Just shy of 120
because the 29,000 295 that you identified as an error in the health, right? Care spending and then 89,000 and change in ECS money. So, it's probably like 119, but then we we put 25 from the road fund back in and restored 5,000 of the assistant finance. Perfect. And Mark, while we're talking about that, we did we did clear that explanation for the stipen, right? Under the assistant finance director, there's no language in the spreadsheet. while we're finishing up this. Yeah, let me take a look. Yeah, we should clear that out. That was the whole reason it's against union. The anticipation is that there'll be anou signed and blah blah blah. But so where I mean I guess if you go all you're just talking about the comment. The comment. Thank you. Here this one. Okay. Yeah. Well, that doesn't really get published for the budget, but yeah,
we can take that out. Please do. That was my whole reason for taking it out. Yeah. Or for minusing it. Thank you. Okay. Anything else relative to the town budget we want to talk about or revenue? So, I just want to give you more exact numbers because I pulled up. So, last year the revenue was $226,000 700 more than anticipated. The majority of which came from two things. one, the state gave us one of their surplus fund thingies that they do occasionally when the state has enough of a revenue surplus at the end of the year. And the biggest contributor was us getting the stiff account which netted the town around $140,000. so and the rest was honestly due to Kate or the tax collector doing a much better job going after tax scoff laws. you know, on the expenditure side, we underexpended the budget including contingency by $180,000. So those were the two numbers you have to work for. I I think we had taken into account the stiff revenue when we set that. y we did this year certainly. Yes. So the current year, the prior year taxes, we had a very successful year. We actually budgeted more based on a last 12 month thing. So we did take that into account also. Correct. And and one thing I think we have to realize that we can't necessarily expect an amazing performance every year because as you whittle away the back taxes, there's just less and less that's likely to be able to collected. Right. So, but you think that's realistic? What we
did? I was going to say, you think that's a realistic number then, Eric? You think there's still that that amount of back taxes to be collected? Yeah, I think there is. I think that is realistic. The only thing that's making me a little nervous is that because we are going ahead with tax foreclosure sales this year. there's a possibility that we're going to be way over on tax collection in the current fiscal year. cuz she's already got you know almost 150,000 in back taxes more than kind of so we're already running ahead on this current year that somewhere along the line that is going to run out. Sure. but I think we're probably okay for next year because of foreclosure sales. Derek, correct? Oh,
thanks. Yep. That's border selection decision. yep. What do you mean? Can you explain that? I guess I'm sure. So, there's or is that what type of taxation it is? There's three major things. Motor vehicle, personal property, and then real estate. personal property, it's really hard to go back and collect taxes that don't get paid because you don't have a lot of teeth to go after them other than sicking the state marshals and try to confiscate their bank accounts, which we do. Also, real estate pretty much, you know, you have more teeth because you can lean the property. when a property gets too far like too far in debt or it's been too many years then in in this case this year the the town board of selectmen on the recommendation from the tax collector sent ones that were you know had been unpaid for a number of years and a big enough amount to make it worth it to tax foreclosure. so that process is going on right now. Okay. Tax foreclosure. Okay. I I didn't hear that part. I was thinking home foreclosures, but you're basically taking legal action on the delayed payment of taxes. Deliquid taxes. Yeah. Right. Essentially, what happens is if you have a property that goes into tax foreclosure, there is an auction. the highest bidder basically pays the amount the worth of the property and the tax the the amount of unpaid taxes goes to the town and then the homeowner then has some period of time to either refinance or in some way pay that individual back so they can prevent that property from actually getting taken from them, but they have to make a positive action to do it. Gotcha. Okay. Yep. Thank you. Yep.
And sorry to flip back and forth. I was just validating some of the changes to to net. So, can we make a motion to move on to the education portion of the budget or Yeah. I mean, and that doesn't mean we can't come back to the town budget, too. I mean, this there isn't a, you know, we can't it's not like a struct thing where the the agenda is going to change. So, no. So, I've kept it kind of open. It seems like it's kind of quieted it down on this side. So, yeah. Okay. So, you the RAM education line obviously u is that's set by the referendum. Yeah. so can't alter that but here we have the AES board of education line so the proposed budget number was given to us was
4,729,155 and 20 so $381,000 change roughly or an 8.8% 8% increase. And obviously we've we've heard a lot about the budget. We know that that's the main point of contention in the in the vote. I'd like to make a motion. was that Liz? Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead, Liz. to cut the increase. So, instead of increasing 8.8% to cut it to 3 point 3% to 3%. Can you can you repeat that? I'd like to make a motion to increase the board of edge bud board of eds budget 3% instead of the original 8.8. Okay, I'll second that. Liz, that was Louise. Oh, I'm sorry. Kim. Kim. Correct. So, I'm just going to do a little cut and paste here so that I can verify my calculation. Whoops, that didn't work. So, that would be Oh, I don't have that that calculation. Yep. Okay. I was actually going to consider So, so what you would be doing is you're proposing that the AES Board of Education line item would be set at 4,478,000.
you know, round it up to 500 if you want. 499.74. Yep. So that is 3% over the current year's budget. Correct. Yes. Yes. So if we if you'll see if I if I copy this and I paste it into the spreadsheet, you see the percent change is 3% here in column N. Yep. yeah. I mean, we obviously understand the surplus and I know there's lots of reasons for it, but the surplus does still it still lives in that in our current budget. And I don't think this decrease would prevent them from I don't think they would be neglecting their contractual liabilities. that's my motion. Okay, we can talk about second. Yeah. Further discussion. This strikes me as the kind of drastic cut I'd like to avoid. I was waiting. I I figured we'd take a whack at that and lower the increase somewhat. But from 8.8 to three is is a huge swing and I'm not in favor. I think it's too much, too deep, especially given that, you know, the referendum results were
not that lopsided to to suggest that we have to go to go that hard. So, you know, I have a thought in mind for for my own proposal, but I'll leave it there for now. I don't support this one. I I would I go along with with Rob. I know we do have to cut Liz here. that was made pretty clear but I think that's to be a little too drastic knowing that there are some stamp mandate state mandates where we have to hire new teachers and pairs and you know software and equipment for kids that are coming in. It's growing every year. So I'm with Rob. I know we have to do something here. Let him finish talk. Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead. Go ahead. I'm I'm I'm
with Rob. I know we have to do something. I just think that's a little harsh. and I don't I don't know. I don't have a number off the top of my head right now. So, I'll let other people talk and then see if somebody else comes up with another number. If this makes it or doesn't make it, whatever. Okay. just so I can go down. Kim, did you want to add anything? I I think that, you know, leaving it with what Liz suggested is it's still going to allow the hiring of new teachers, paras, and things will, you know, just go on status quo at the school. I I don't think it'll hurt the children, the
families, or anything. I I I think the taxpayers spoke. I I think it's a fair a fair change to make right now. Yeah. So my point is Louise, I just like to hear from everybody, then we'll come back if we could. So yeah, I think it's just everyone's got an opinion, I think, on most of these, so I just like to make sure. Yep. Go ahead. Did you have a comment? Yeah, I agree with both Kim and Liz. I think we need to do something here and the town has spoken. and I do feel that this the school will can deal with that at this point with the extra money and that's it. I agree with that. And Joanne, thank you. Yeah, I'm glad we can finally comment on this in public and there's been a lot of conjecture and probably my first time speaking out loud about it. I think from the beginning we all thought it was a big ask. I think we've all, you know, had our opinions
that we've never seen such a big ask before. You know, we listen to everything. I'm more of a dollar amount person. So, I would rather see like can we and I'll shut my thing down and figure out the calculations of you know I know I believe I have a a brochure that said that the first increase and I hope I can find my page was oh is it 381,097 and that was what they were asking for with their 8.8% increase. Yes. So 381096. Oh okay. Maybe I round it up. Thank you Liz. So if we are looking can we know what the 3% you know how much would the 3% be? Less than half. Right. So what what would the increase be? from right there the dollar change is 3%. It's 130,441. All right. So that's a 3%. Thank you. you know, myself, I'm I'm going to be torn on this. I I'm going to be thinking about it through and through. I know that this year the board has, you know, shown the propensity of trying to, you know, I've been on the board of finance, others have just joined it. I've been on the board of finance for four years. So, I know that it's always been a difficult decision or conversation every year. We know there's been surpluses and things. This was the first year that I I thought we made inroads with working with the board of ed as far as you know creating the capital fund account knowing there's a lot of work that's going to be done
there. I also was a big fan of if there was going to be a surplus, let's figure out a way that it can go back into the school and be productive, which I think happened this year. I'm not I'm not saying there wasn't a big surplus and that you know the figures have shown that and I I you know the people have spoken so we have to make a cut. I just have to do some fast math that I'm very famous for to see what I would be comfortable with cutting because my intention was always going to be to suggest a cut, you know, as far as to that budget. that hadn't changed. That you know was a big ask like I'm saying publicly right now. and you know we've got to listen to the people. I just want to make sure that they you know they've showed a lot of propensity to work with the whole town together. We're trying to come together with getting a lot of the the capital projects done. So I just want to feel comfortable with the overall cut and then move forward. And we also have as a
board of finance sent emails that we wanted to have a little bit more financial information and hopefully that can be worked on in the future as well. so I know you're going to call for a vote quickly, but I just I need a few minutes to do a little bit of mental math for myself, but thank you. That's my two cents. Okay, Liz, did you you want Yeah, while you're while you're doing your mental math, I just wanted to say so the school is not in a position where there's mandatory hirings needed. this I think the school has a policy that once the classes reach 30, I don't know if that's a state law or not, that they would want to increase. And and I totally get that. I wouldn't I wouldn't support having classrooms of of 30 children. but they're not anywhere near a mandate where they need to hire. They want to add a teacher for the large fourth grade class, which is absolutely makes sense because there's the to I think there's 36 kids. and then there's a class of 28 and a class of 27. so it's not it's not to the point of a mandate. And then but coming up behind those classes, there's classes of 22 and 23 and I think 21. And when the discussion happens about this
growth of the school, the growth in the school is mostly due to the preschool. And we need to talk about that. and Maguire even suggested that we need to talk about this because they are now have opened this up to non-andover students and that is where the growth is coming in our school and that shouldn't scare us into thinking that we should you know consider a bigger increase than maybe necessary. the fact is that surplus that was in the budget still lives in this budget. It doesn't go away. So if you look at what was expended last year compared to this year or next year, I had these notes written down and I I don't know what I did. Oh, wait. Here they are. bottom line is that that increase or that surplus is still lift. It will compound year-over-year. That increase will stay in the budget as long as the budget continues to get built on current budgeted amounts versus considering the expended amount. So, I'm I'm hoping we can do it for 3% because, you know, it is what it is. everybody will have a say and you
know obviously we all have to come in you know to some sort of a an agreement but I just wanted to clear up some you know some narratives that that we're we're looking at a position where positions are going to be mandated does not appear to be based on the information that I received from AES and this 3% would allow them to hire the teachers that they would need. considering the fact that that surplus still lives in the budget. That's my that's my take. Okay. Anybody else want to add anything? I just want to add more if you go ahead.
Y I just wanted to just say that, you know, I'm a newer board of finance member, but this decision it's it's not easy to make. you probably couldn't find anybody who cares more about kids and education. this is just a it's a very complex decision. combing through a budget, looking at information that you're given and working with that information to make a decision based on the entire town and the population. So for me, it's it's it was hard. It's hard. I I love kids. I completely respect the education process at Andover Elementary School. They're wonderful teachers and it's it's not easy, but I do think that this is fair. Okay. Thank you. Anybody else? Yeah, I want to say something, Louise. Yeah, I appreciate all the the work that Liz has done into this. she's gone through a lot of different venues as far as figuring out getting all this information and it's come out and I think it's time that we do something about it. Just wanted to call it that Mr. maker. I forget his name, but he's on board. He just put up a note and said something to the effect that the 3% mandatory increases for those teachers,
I think it said it wouldn't cover the 3% wouldn't cover those increases. So again, I'm just want to make sure everybody caught that note that he they renegotiated the teacher contract. So yeah, the contract has that increase. So he said the 3% will not allow for any staff to be hired. So that's you basically eat that with the salary increases that have been negotiated, right? So, I I still hold my position. I think the 3% is is too much of a cut and we're not going to be to hire the teacher for the class of 36 people. so I I I hear you, Liz. I hear everybody else and on the phone. I just think that's a little too steep to still be able to hire a teacher that's needed and support the salary increases that are mandated. So that's my final thought on that. Really quick, can I just add one more thought? You know, as regards surpluses that EAS has managed to bring in over the last couple of budget cycles, I'd be careful. I mean, I always think it's difficult to to to count on grant grant money. And I think this year in particular is a very dubious time to be counting on grant money. we've
had a good track record, but there are reasons, and I don't I'm not going to elaborate. I don't want to start a fight, but there are reasons to think, is our great money coming? So, I'd be real I'd be more cautious than I otherwise might be on that issue with looking at last year surplus and saying, "Oh, that could happen again. There's slack in this budget." So, that's one of the reasons I'm opposed. Okay. Anybody else have any comments or can we Mark can I can I just go ahead to be voting on this motion? But it I mean we're all taking a deep dive and really coming within oursel because we know the people have spoken. We know that the the board of ed budget has been you know a a a source of contention year after year you know with everything that's happened. So I I is it proper for me to and we knew we would probably come to this point if the budget didn't pass, but I would love to know Rob's idea just to throw it out there. I know we can't vote on it, but he said he had an idea. I wanted to know because I know he's fully ingrained in what would his compromise situation be or what was his thoughts? Are we allow because we're
going to be doing big votes on all of this. So, so you're seeing what kind of discount or what kind? It's hardly rocket science. I was going to say that, you know, 6% is is a rough midpoint. instead of the 3% 6% increase, so instead of 8.8 or three, kind of in between the two. that's still, you know, that's still I think it's about $120,000 from what they asked. That's not insignificant. And at the same time, I don't think it's crippling. so you know, I don't, and I have to admit, you know, we're we're just basing we're just going on their overall budget here. The BOE would have to then sort out how they'd handle that cut, right? again, I think the bud the the election results were in context do not suggest that we need to make such a big cut. And so I would propose a midpoint kind of deal like that if this motion fails. I appreciate you speaking to that. I know I'm a little concerned. I definitely know that we have to cut tonight. I mean, the people have spoken and that was loud and clear. I just want to make sure that we make a fair cut this year. I think we made inroads. I'm not sure what that fair cut is. So, I wanted to hear what Rob was saying. you know, a lot has been brought up, but I also feel like our relationship with them has brought a lot of inroads. So, I think we should follow through
with and pursue for everyone that has a lot of questions on the financial reporting and, you know, maybe ask for a little more information, find out where other cuts can be made or whatever. So, yeah, I'm on the fence with this, too, as far as thinking, you know, going from an 8.8 eight down to a 3% is just too much at this time. you know, but opening would you feel better cutting that eight and a half in half? That's I was more going that way, the four and a half%. I just I know that this has to be done and so I appreciate the honest and open and
finally we're allowed to talk about it. you know what we would do or what we would think so that people will know that. so yeah, I didn't want to go as deep as three. I understand that there's been a lot of things brought up, a lot of literature and a lot of things, but I I want to work together and and you know, come to a fair fair point. So Liz, could we maybe just round it out at five? That's your 4.4 and Rob 6%. Maybe we go at five and call it a day. Something like that. Well, just just as a point of order. Yes, we gota I know we gota vote on this. We have to vote on this motion. So yet, but I if I could comment. So, one thing I want to point out is that if we were to leave this decrease in place, and I have to verify and make sure I don't leave any weird rogue numbers around, but we're actually reducing the amount to be raised by taxes at a time when we all know
inflation is 3 to 5%. Exactly. Wait, what exactly are you saying, Mark? I'm so sorry. I'm not following that. When we look at this, when we take a look at this, we're actually reducing the amount to be raised by taxes versus last year, which is a good thing. We have inflation, Joanne. We have mandatory. Oh, wait. Guys, I had the floor. Okay, I had the floor. So, let me if I could just tell you talk about what my what my view would be. Yeah. So I think three is a deep 3% increase is a pretty deep, you know, it's 3%. It's an increase, right? But it does, you know, does take us into a tax reduction. Now, part of that is driven, you know, maybe by the fund balance. So, we have
to recognize that that we're using some of the fund balance, but I think we also recognize that we're probably okay doing that. personally, I wouldn't, you know, I think that's I'd like to see a little more than a 3% increase. So cut from the original budget would be less. you know, and if we remain flat, it's hard to see how people would argue with that. If we did not increase taxes for the town of Andover, it's hard to see how that would be problematic. Eric, you have your hand up. Do you want to add something? So, obviously I don't have a vote in this, but the the hardest thing I think in your jobs right now is balancing a budget that will get through a town meeting and then we'll get through a referendum. and I can say if you propose that big a cut to AES, you'll get the parents all out to
the budget meeting. and it will get sent back to you and you'll be here this week because that's what happened the last time we did this. that's just an observation for what happened in the past. I can't tell you what the truly correct number is or should be. education budgets not my forte anyway, but I think if you went with a 3% budget, you would have a very hard time getting that through the next public meeting. you know, yeah, that's all I got. And I I I read the charter and I thought the charter said the next time we go together to present it to the town, it is just presented and no changes are made. I It's the same process. People get to vote on it. but did we vote the last time? I thought that they changed the charter that there is a meeting, they're allowed to make changes but only go lower and then it just swoops over to the referendum. I thought that was our new charter cuz I thought we took away
voting on it at the end, but I could be incorrect. I I don't think that's the way. It's it's not the most clear language in the world, but what it says is that you know if the referendum if the if the budget is defeated at first referendum or for a second time at town meeting, the budget would be bifurcated into separate votes on the town budget and on the local board of education budget individually and the process shall begin again with the board of finance as set forth in section 803C which is what talks about the passing the budget at the town meeting above and shall continue until each bifurcated budget is passed. So that's the town meeting. Oh, so we're on to a new because we definitely same same process just bifurcated and the board of financial review any rejected bud budget and present for review and discussion only the same or revised budget to a subsequent town meeting held exactly one week after the day of the referendum at which it was rejected and then extra referendum will be held exactly two
weeks later. If only one of the two bifurcated budgets is passed at referendum, it is final and may be implemented for the new fiscal year. This process must continue for any failed budget until it is passed. Okay. So, I think it's the same process, but if we go to town meeting and we pass the town budget, that's done. That'll go to referendum, but we still need to go have another town meeting to pass the education budget if it were to fail at town meeting. And and I I think Eric is right. rejected. We need to consider the ability to pass this from both sides. And the you know, and just a reminder, if if it comes in high, people can always reduce it at town meeting. Didn't happen last time, but it can happen. That is the motion that can be made. Cannot be increased. It can only be reduced. Joanne, you got your hand up? Did you Oh, no. I'm not trying to. Is my hand up? Sorry. Chuire has his hand up. I don't know. Yeah, I'd like to understand it just because everything's so new. Thank you. Yeah. go ahead. Go ahead, Jeff. As far as the charter change goes, it's the exact same process. The It's true. that's
bifrocated, but you still go to a town meeting. The town meeting only has a vote to pass it to referendum. They don't have a they're not voting on the budget there. They can vote on decreasing the budget as Mark said, but he said too, if it doesn't if there's no reductions to the budget or whatever is reduced is what will go to referendum. goes to referendum at that point in the time. We do need to You don't vote on it like we used to vote on it. We used to vote on it where we would vote it up or down and you know right from town meeting it would be pushed back to the board of finance. But that's not what the new process is. The new process is it goes to a town
meeting. It can be reduced but then it moves to referendum for the vote to determine if it comes back to the board of finance again. That that is the new process. That is what Thank you. That's the way I understood it, Jeff. Thanks for clarification. Thank you, Jeff. I I have a comment. Go ahead, Louise. looks like Eric Becker said something about contractual obligations and benefits are 100,000. So, I'm I'm thinking if if that's true, what would the percentage the lowest percentage we could actually allow to Yeah, that's lower than we were trying. I know. To have that actually go through. Do you know what I'm saying? Yes. Yeah. I think he's just giving us feedback to factor. He's just giving us finance meeting throwing different numbers into us to take into consideration. Right. And it's this is I just want to make sure to finance meeting. Yeah. I just want to make sure that we're allowing them to do what they need to do, you know, without causing problems at this point. But that just struck me funny. That's all. No, thanks. Other comments, Mark, I just want to be clear. So, you're and and I agree that and and I'm gonna stick to it that I think maybe cutting right now down to the 3% is is too much.
but you're saying that if we did that, we'd be lowering the total tax collected. That's what Yes. Yeah. I mean, we'll validate this calculation, but it looks like the total taxes will go down about $139,000. What if we did like like Liz had suggested like well I don't know how you're doing all these calculations don't usually have to do it later. should we factor in any does anyone else want to factor in one of the other suggestions like the 5% or the the 4.4 You want to know what 5% would be? Is that Well, I guess that was one of the
figures that is that going to affect the taxes collected. Mark, if you want I have a spreadsheet that shows three through 8%. just did Eric. Yeah. So, there's five there's 5%. It would be about a $217,000 increase. the mill rate would be still be a reduction in the overall taxes again because we're using a more fund balance this year of about 52,000. So now with that fund balance you mean because we added in the extra 40 that we should have you know we were making up for last year. Gotcha. Correct. Yeah. All right. No, because I'm trying to wrap my head around what you're saying here and just see how significant it is and it I I will get there. I
understand. It's a whole new angle that I usually don't use. So, I' I'd like to call for a vote on the motion that's on the floor to if we could if nobody has any any disagreements. So, the the motion on the floor is to set the AES board of ed line item at 4,478,499.74. All those in favor say I. I. I. Okay, that looked like Liz and Kim. Kim and Louise. And Louise. Okay. And all those opposed? Nay. Nay. Okay. So, I have Joanne, myself, Rob, and Bill. That sound right? Yes. Okay. The motion does not pass. Okay. We can entertain another motion. I'd make a motion that we
decrease the 8.8% down to a 5% increase this year for the AES budget. So, you're proposing that we with the number that you put up there for 5%. You're making a motion that we set the AES budget at 4,4 565,000 and Yep. 469 469 461. Yeah, I'll second for discussion. Okay, Joanne seconds. We had a lot of discussion already. just for it's buying time. It's buying time. We can take a look and see what that does. And again, that that looks like it takes us to about a lower amount by taxation by about $52,000, right? Because that's we you had already made that calculation during discussion, right? Yeah. So, no change what that does for a mill rate. It still increases the mill rate, but again, that's because of the change to the the way that the U vehicles are are appraised. It doesn't actually change the taxation. So, with this budget, the taxation actually continues to go down. Can we go all the way down to the bottom? Like increasing the just keep going a little bit so we can all see. That is everything right there. That's it. Right. But I I'm just getting to the bottom like I know you did. But isn't there a total of expenses at the bottom? Even lower mark. That's on the main budget. Oh, sorry. That's it. That ends right there. I thought it did a No, no, that's that's the mill rate. That's the mill
rate. This is the main for the town operating budget, the percent increase is 4.1%. The mill rate increase is 4.1. No, no. Everything's going so fast. We're all over the place. No, no, no. That's expenditure, but we also have revenue. I made my page too big. That's why. I apologize. That's why I wasn't seeing it. I was able to My bad. Let me shut off my camera. Give me a moment to take this all in. While Joanne's doing that, can I just just chip in my two cents real quick? Yeah. I I still personally think this is is a little much, but you know, as you all know, my proposal would would have been a little higher, 6%. I understand we're trying to find a compromise. We're trying to feel our way to getting to a compromise. I'll just point out again, you know, of of the money so far, our net result tonight, you know, we're we're in a positive 90,000 and that's ECS money. So, you know, I am I am I love the idea of bringing the town a flat budget, you know, flat taxation, flat mill rate. but this actually goes past that. I think if we did mine, I think we'd probably be almost exactly at zero. So,
that's my take. M if I could speak I I don't think I think this is a nice compromise. I think it's more than half. You know, we're not cutting it in half. I like that bill proposed the 5%. We heard earlier tonight by some of the board of ed people saying that they had heard different towns had passed a 5% increase, which is generally more than any town. You know, I work for a board of ed. You usually don't hear of these numbers. But if it this is indeed the year that they do need to support, you
know, new staff and sorry, I thought my camera was on more staff and different changes that they have outlined. I think this budget could be passable. I think if we go any higher, it's not going to be passable. And Mark, you brought up the points of why it might not be a good idea, you know, to go too low. I'm I'm perfect. I'm thinking that senior citizens will be happy with this kind of budget. You know, like you said, it's a tiny increase in the mill rate. it's actually a reduction. It's actually a reduction. Why am I looking at 31.46 and 31.59? Well, remember the mill rates calculated based on the grand list and the grand list went down because they lowered the value of vehicles. It was the change the way they shifted sometimes. the calculation of the tax rate. But is that the mill rate that we're going to be taxing people on? Yes. Is that the mill rate that we're taxing people on? The mill rate is only one component, right? That the valuation is the other component, right? Valuation change is your actual tax bill. What we're trying to show here is that your actual tax bill would drop will go down Joan, right? Even though higher slightly high, you know, teeny tiny, but I think we're going to have win-win. we've done, you know, we've shown that there's been surpluses all around. You know, we're doing good things with the surpluses. You know, we found avenues for that to go. you know, we've we've put, you know, there's still increases in expenses. We really everything that I motioned to cut wasn't cut. So, we're
not and we've added money back in tonight. We would be cutting the board of ed. I understand that. But from the get-go, the board of ed has been a contentious point where people were asking us to cut that all along. That's all we heard. So, I feel like we're at least not cutting it more than the 50%. So, that that's my take. I don't know. I I understand you're all concerned in different different ways. Let me if I could let me do go down and make sure everybody So, Rob, I think you spoke to this. Bill, you have any comments? I'm all set. Okay, Kim. I'm all set. Thank you. Okay, Louise. I'd like to see more of a half. for me that I feel that's a good compromise. So, that would be what? 4.4%. Yeah. Increase. Well, again, keep in mind it can always be reduced at the time at the Right. Right. I'd be more inclined to vote on something like that. To me, five is a little bit too high.
Okay. Liz, you have anything more to add? yeah. I mean, for me, five is high, but I certainly don't want to go higher. and I understand that we all have to come to a compromise. So, I get that. I appreciate the discussion. Question. Yeah. you I would actually put myself in that camp also. but I mean we're already at a tax reduction so to me to you know maybe I'd put back that town a road money but or not town a road but the but we're doing the job we're we set out to do. You know we're supposed to have these discussions. Yeah. Well the thing that's really the thing that's really driving the better the improved situation you know we're still seeing a significant increase on both the town and the school side of expend expenditures. So we got to keep that in
mind. What we're seeing is that we had an improvement in revenue. So we don't know if that's always going to be the case. So you know I'm again I'm not inclined to you know I think we're fortunate because we've had this revenue increase. The educational cost sharing might get taken out again next year. You know we may not see the collections as quite as strong on the and the overdue taxes. There's a lot of things that could happen. So, you know, I I think we're just fortunate this year if we could do this. Yeah. Call a question or Yeah. I've said my piece. You all know where I stand. So, take a vote. Anybody else? Yeah. I'm gonna I'm going to go down again just roll call because it's too complicated and confusing trying to do that. And this is this is the 5% proposal, correct? Yeah. So, just to just to clarify what we have before us is a motion to set the AES board of ed budget at whoops. Sorry, wrong screen. I clicked off the I have two two spreadsheets and the charter open and everything else to set the AES 4,565,461 that's an increase of $217,400 roughly. and about a 5% increase over the current year budget. So, Joanne, what's your vote? Okay. based on I don't think we could pass a higher amount than that. That would not pass higher. I Yes. Yes. Also, okay, Liz, I.
Louise, I'm on the fence, but I'll say I. Okay. Kim, I'm on the fence, too, but I'll say I. Rob, I'll stick to my guns and say nay. Okay. and I will say I even though I would not like seeing a little lower. Okay, motion passes. The AES budget is set at that amount. Okay. Do we have any other proposed changes to the budget? That is a good budget. Let's take it to the town. Mark, when we're done this evening, will you be sharing that with all of us? Yeah, I probably need to clean it up and just make sure. Yeah, once you're Thank you for taking the time to do that, right? Yeah. Make sure that's propagated properly. We're looking at a mill rate of three, a proposed mill rate of 31.59, right? Okay. Correct. Yeah. The mill rate will be Yeah. heavy set. But yeah. And then down the total raised by taxation is a there it is negative half a percent. Negative and a half percent. About 50,000 reduced. Yeah. I mean it's it's you know functionally it's zero. Yeah. Bill, should we throw any more money? Okay. Now you understand the fun. I don't have to paid that cut. Come on. Let's just call it a good night. Let's Yeah, I'm just teasing. Such a pain. I make the motion to adjurnn. Well, wait. Let's Are we So, can we Can we Is there another round of public speak usually or I can't remember. Not on the agenda. No. Okay.
That's only for that one meeting, I guess. We Well, to me, I think the real the real public comments going to come during the town budget meeting, but that's true. It wasn't on the agenda. I just wanted to ask Eric, what are what's our next process? it all came so fast with the referendum yesterday. I think it was said earlier that we have another town meeting next Tuesday. Am I right on that? That is correct. The next town meeting will be Tuesday at 700 p.m. in the AES gymnasium. Thank you. Thanks, Eric. Can I Can I make a question? Can I go ahead, Louis? I'm just curious as far as the actual town meeting. is it I'm not sure if it's legal or whatever. Are children supposed to be there at the meeting or I I know some people were distracted by the kids at the last meeting. How you going to have kid parents come to a meeting, a public meeting if they got to get you out? I mean, you got to be kidding. Yeah, I don't think I don't think you restricted. Excuse me. As a parent of young children, are you kidding me right now? What? [Music] Yes, they're allowed to be there. I think it's I think it's up to the Can they be restrained? Not restrained. Well, I think it's up to it's up to the
moderator to have to manage the the meeting in terms of of the activity. So people who are speaking out of terms, people are making too much noise, you know, he has the ability to address those concerns. Yeah. And that would be the appropriate thing I think. If he's not do if he or she is not doing that, can someone make a not a notion, but can they speak up at the meeting and say, you know, it is being distracting? Yeah, I would I would say you'd probably want to Okay. pass a note to him first and then see I'm just letting you know that some people talked to me about it and they said that was very distracting for them. It was I I think it's it's probably it's probably something that could be mentioned to the mo to the moderator kind of off to the side and then he could be made aware of it just
in case. Well, hopefully parents would would, you know, not police, but yeah, I didn't think it was too bad actually, but yeah, if the children are acting up, they can just take them outside or in the hallway kind of like in church as well, something like that. So, yeah. I thought they were awfully well behaved. I don't know what people are talking about. I didn't. Anyway, I think I think that's true. Let's focus on the budget if we could. Does anybody have anything else to add? Well, that is part of the budget. Yeah, it's part of the process. What's going on? I get it. Yeah. I just Okay. Something we don't really control. So, yeah. So, basically when we go to the town meeting, it will be a presentation to present the budget to show people the budget. People could make a motion to cut further. Correct. And then that goes to the referendum. No, it would be voted on right then and there. Then and then whether that passes, Liz, then it would go to the actual town vote. Right. Right. Okay. So it doesn't my reiterating. Just make
sure we have a full understanding to the town hall. There's no more back and forth back here. Whatever it ends up with that day goes to referendum. Got it. All right. And furthering. Okay. We'll cross our fingers. Okay. Yeah. Furthering her question, are we because it's bifurcated, there's two different votes. Is that what's happening? Yes. Yes. Okay. Thank you. And I'll update the presentation to try to make that as clear as possible. So, you know, we'll present one, you know, one group and then the other group and, you know, well, we'll we'll talk about them and we'll talk about the total, but I think then the vote would be, you know, it would be clear that, okay, we're going to vote on this one. This is the number we're proposing. But it'd be important, I think, too, Mark, to show not only both separate, but combined what it means for the town overall. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. We they got to know that, right? That's they got to know what the impact is. Yeah. Okay. I think this is the first time this has actually happened, right, since that? Yeah. This is a new this Yeah. Yeah, it is. Yeah. So, it's going to be interesting. Louise, do you have something? No, I'm good. Okay. And final question for Eric. I'm sorry. I know we want to close. So, we'll have the town meeting and then the next referendum. Is there a certain amount of
days we have it after that second town meeting? I believe the next referendum is May 27th. which is the day after Memorial Day weekend. and then it failed on the 7th. it would be June 3 would be the next budget meeting and the next referendum would be the 17th. So we basically have two more failures or one failure in a pass before the board of s board of finance has to set an actual mill rate without an approved budget. So that's basically what you're working on. Thank you. Thank you. I do have another question. at the referendum, if if you're not able to make it, do they have absentee votes? Not at the referendum, but at the actual vote you would, I believe. Well, the vote is the referendum. That is the referendum. Yeah. So, if you know you're not going to be there, can you make a can you get an absentee vote? I believe so, but I am not the registar, so I don't know. I don't want to give you a definitive answer on that. That would be a a Linda Derek or Wally Barton question. Hey, it's Linda. Oh, I just figured out how to unmute. Hello. yes, there are absentee ballots. Nice. Thank you. You're welcome. Thanks, Linda. Okay. Do we have further discussion or does somebody want to make a motion to adjurnn? I'll make a motion to adjourn. Second. Louise, do you want to second that? You I'm sorry. Yes. Okay. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Good job, everybody. Thank you. Yeah, I think I appreciate the work complicated thing and it's fraught in many ways. So appreciate your
participation and your your efforts and we'll see you next week and see what happens.