Finance Committee Meeting Minutes 5/26/2020

FINANCE COMMITTEE MEETING

MAY 26, 2020

MINUTES

ATTENDING MEMBERS:                     

            GEORGE CAIN, CHAIR             UNIDENTIFIED MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC                             

            JON SYLBERT                                      

            REBECCA WOLIN

The meeting was called to order at 4:01 PM. 

The Finance Committee took last year’s Approved FY 2020 Budget and recast it to include all of the Free Cash and Stabilization activity from the Warrants associated with both of last year’s Town meetings.  This was done in order to have an “apples to apples” comparison between the Final FY 2020 Budget with the Recommended FY 2021 Budget.  Failing to make this adjustment artificially inflates the previous year’s budget comparison. 

After making this correction, the ACTUAL spending through April 2020 ($3,094,298) was examined against the FY 2020 Budget ($4,467,481).  Granted, there are still two months of spending to go, and we still need to make the payments referenced earlier in the day by Melissa.  Nevertheless, we are currently under the FY 2020 Budget by $1,373,182, or 31%.  Therefore, the likelihood of having a substantial Free Cash position going into 2021 is very high.  Further, in the past two fiscal years, Monterey generated over $800,000 in Free Cash in FY 2018 and over $400,000 in Free Cash in FY2019.  These kinds of numbers are a disservice to our taxpayers.  Accordingly, the Finance Committee recommends that the Free Cash carry-forward to FY 2021 be $25,000, and the balance in Free Cash be used to reduce taxes.

The next item of reconciliation with the Select Board’s position from last week was the Ambulance Service.  The proposed budget, based upon the presentation, of $9,885 for Monterey seemed reasonable.  The Finance Committee believes, as our only ambulance emergency service provider, the Ambulance Service budget request should be discussed further with the Select Board.

The Finance Committee also believes that the $30,000 Fire Department Capital Budget request should be discussed further with the Select Board.

Finally, based upon Kenn’s strong belief that the Fire Department’s shift change program can be funded out of Covid-19 funds, the Finance Committee recommends that the Fire Department budget be held at last year’s level.

Monterey is somewhat more fortunate than our neighboring communities as we navigate through the challenges of this pandemic because of the absence of commercial enterprises that have been extraordinarily impacted by the virus.

The Minutes from the 5/19/2020 and 5/20/2020 meetings were reviewed and approved.

The meeting was adjourned at 4:26 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

George Cain, Chair