[Music] hey good evening everyone uh this is a meeting of the finance committee it is Wednesday April 4th 2024 so I have a motion to open our meeting so mve second all in favor all all right we are open uh this meeting is being video recorded uh let's stand for the Pledge of Allegiance i al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you okay so we had good intentions for tonight's meeting but some of the plans have been changed um Mr Kelly uh could not be here tonight he's got a personal uh matter that he's attending to um so we will not get a budget update uh from Mr Kelly tonight we also were going to take up some Reserve fund transfers um however we do not have uh the transfers in front of us um and the board of selectman is not taking these transfers up until April 16th anyway so we're we're going to meet on the 17th day after to take up these transfers which is the way it should be anyway um one thing I want to brief everybody on is an email that I had with Jamie Kelly Our Town Administrator regarding um the free cash that we have uh available and how it's being utilized um to help balance this year's budget so uh the total number in free cash was 4 $5 3,382 and it's being allocated in the following ways so article 12 which is still being negotiated uh is for is going to be $81,300 one and that's for the health insurance Reserve Buy in but like I that's still being negotiated so that number could change a little bit um Article 13 is in the amount of $374,700 School Bus contract the emerald School Bus contract the lawsuit uh Article 15 is in the amount of 145,000 which is for the fire department it's for the capital um alarm system and repeater article 16 $20,000 for the senior workof program article 17 $30,000 for the Yes program and article 18 would be the $100,000 that would be allocated into our general stabilization fund that leaves a remaining balance of $922 3 left in free cash after all those articles are paid so we're broke well that's that's what we're left with you know and um you know I want to go back to something that I talked about at the The Joint meeting we had a couple weeks ago cuz it was there was a point that was made that you know or was a question actually um you know regarding is what we're experiencing right now just a blip like for this year um and it's it really isn't it's not it's not going to be a blip um we're going to be facing the same thing if not worse next year more than likely I mean our state is running huge deficits in the state pension fund at the tune of $35 billion that they're underfunded um so that's a major unfunded liability uh opab is uh another major unfunded liability at the tune of a little over 16 million do so those are those are big things that the state is going to have to deal with with so if they have to deal with that where's the extra money going to come from to give to the small towns like ours uh and then throw on top of that the governor allocating a billion dollars towards illegal immigration so people are getting fed housed free health care debit cards with you know funds put on there it's not right it it's not right cuz it's taking away from from our local services not just here in kushit but throughout the Commonwealth for smaller towns this is one of the reasons why we're most likely seeing such a small amount in Chapter 70 Aid this year right $35,000 I mean that's peenuts that's nothing um so I don't see that changing dramatically and then I just also heard a couple days ago that you know the governor is is also planning to allocate another billion dollars towards illegal immigration into the the following fisal year um the sad part Mike is that that 850 million that they allocated this year is only supposed to be solvent through April maybe the very beginning of May and then they're out of funds already and that 850 million was taken from a State Surplus fund which was supposed to be used for rainy day rainy day allocation like Mercy you know in my I'm sorry but this is what going on is not an emergency um self Manu it's a self-inflicted problem uh especially you know at the federal level it's it's an it's it's an intentionally created issue I mean you can solve it pretty easily um so at the state level you know as a governor yeah you're you're complaining you're not getting enough resources from the federal government okay you're not going to get the extra resources right now so what should you do as a governor to help out your the entire Commonwealth how about resending the state Sanctuary status right we should not be a sanctuary state if we can't provide adequate resources for the taxpaying residents in this Commonwealth um it's it's pretty simple you know and at the federal level you know how to solve that problem I mean you you close the border you can't what's happening is insane in my opinion because it's it's it's affecting all these states that are functioning as sanctuary States right and we're one of them and it's just it's really eating into the resources that that are available not eating into it's absorb so what do so how do so what do we do with do about it here right here the only thing we can control is how much we spend that's the that's the one variable that we can control you know with state aid yeah we can hope hope and pray that it increases but even if it does it's not going to be enough to still offset what deficit we're facing so there still would be cuts um so we have to really limit the spending uh you know some of the spending you know in in in some departments have been a lot over the last several years you know I'm not going to pick on any one Department because there's been there's been big increases in in several but you know you it's just we we can't we can't continue down this path it's not sustainable we're not going to you know start asking the residents to put more on their backs and I feel that's what that's what our governor is expecting I mean Services well yeah that but the other thing that's Troublesome to me is the fact that she's allowed or given the power to municipalities to either double or triple the excise tax on on on people MH so what does that tell you that tells you that don't count on more money from us in the form of Aid you're going to have to get it more from your residents now I don't think we're not going to be affected in this small town by that I would hope not um but there might be some big cities that are going to be affected by that I mean you you double or triple somebody's excise tax I mean that's that's a significant amount of money mhm um so these These are the kind of things that we're facing and you know we're not being hard here on the finance committee we're doing our our diligence and our duty to the entire town and the residents that that reside in this town um we all live in this town we don't want our services to suffer but we also don't want to be paying astronomical property taxes uh along the way um whether it's from an override I mean override should not be utilized to fund an operational budget I never believe in that um or or take or taking money away from our stabilization fund which is our safety net that that should be really preserved and only utilized for a true emergency situation which and like you pointed out mik you take the money away from the stabilization fund now we drop between a certain rates and that costs us in our bond rating and all the money when we have to borrow it's a hidden expense so maybe you took a million dollars out of the stabilization fund but on top of the million we lost it's going to cost us another $350,000 in benefits we don't have and let's hope we don't have a water main break in the meantime yeah that or you know God forbid a fire in a in one of our big buildings I mean and it's a onetime fix so if it's an emergency and you need to take it that's what it's for but it can't be for oper operational expenses because next year all you have is under a bigger Rock I think that's probably why the question was asked is this a bump in the road yeah it's not and this is not a bump in the road if you look at if you look at all the the writing on the wall it it's not a bump in the road no you can by but to make that statement if it's a bump on the road like what what has been out there to even indicate that the state might be reviewing this like I haven't heard anything so if we're even questioning and saying is this you know this could be seen as a bump on the road yeah it could be but for us to even contemplate that possibility there needs to be some discussion regarding that and I haven't heard that and so if there has been discussion that the state might be revisiting that's one thing but I don't know that we can you know cross our fingers and hope and pray that you know the state realizes they made a mistake when there's no indication that's even going to happen like even if they do by the time they act on it'll be too late for us I think it's already too late now funds and the extra funds yeah the the co gravy train is done um that's that's over right I mean I mean the the government the federal government still spends money irresponsibly in my opinion you know they they just love just love printing money um you know you're supposed to be funding uh putting something towards a bill right but they got to throw all kinds of other BS pork lots of pork I mean it's just i' I've said this numerous times if if a private sector business were to run like a municipality they would not stay in business for very long not only that they'd be audited by the government for misuse of funds more than likely I mean you're not you know private private sector businesses they don't factor in a three or 4% Cola uh for everybody it all depends on how that business performs um as far as what raises is going to be handed out or bonuses right umh if the company's not making a a profit or they're barely scraping by guess what your salary is probably Flatline or Worse you're getting laid off um and those those are the reality situations for people that work in the private sector um that you know there there's a lot of pressure there um you know and people in the private sector don't have that that golden parachute waiting for them at the end of the day in the form of a of a big state funded pension either that is a big that's a big difference um so I I think you know that has to be recognized or acknowledged by the people who are benefiting from these things right you know there's a year all right we're not doing that good this year we can't get as big of a raise all right I can I can deal with that issue you know and but I'm going to have my pension still waiting for me at the end of the day a lot of a lot of the businesses today are not giving pensions no the traditional pension are done you want to pension you invested a 401k some some corporations well they'll have a 401k in place they might match percentage Dro that Pension Plan well because it's not sustainable they can't afford you can't afford that no right I mean the private comp the private corporations recognized that years ago yeah but the state government is so far behind and doesn't hasn't recognize that now we're now we're facing we're going to be facing this kind of situation a lot um especially now that you know Co funds are all gone and you know that was all fine and dandy for a couple years right but I would have never had rather gone through that you know in exchange for you know funds from the government excuse me so anyway um does anybody have anything to add on anything that we been discussing um you know we're just doing our job on this Committee in my opinion we're trying to help out the town volunteer our time I know I personally are put in a lot of time this year probably more than more than most I know and everybody here has as well because of what we're facing I mean we want to we want to keep this town affordable for the residents that are here that have been here for a long time I mean it's it's getting to the point where it's unaffordable you know somebody's you finally getting to the point where you're going to pay off your mortgage right and but then you start seeing your property taxes escalate like they have been the last couple years and then add homeowners insurance to it so all of a sudden Bingo boom you got another mortgage payment between your property taxes and your homeowners insurance because the cost is just out of control something's going to give at some point here um but like I said the only thing we can control right now this year for to budget the B the to balance the budget this year is what we spend and that's and that's the bottom line future projections as far as revenue and what we're going to do that's that's definitely a good conversation that we have to have um to have a to have a game plan I think that's valid we should have that um but right now this is what we're facing we can't plan with what if we have to with what we know no you can't those aren't options you know what if this happens or or that or what if something doesn't happen um you can't run a business that way you don't no it doesn't work M all right so going back so we're not going to take up the reserve fund uh request tonight um they can they can be held off um until this until the 16th we're going to meet on the 17th um does anybody have any uh old business they want to discuss no old business no um new business no new business as far as I just want to go back to um budget deliberations um I know we were going to plan on voting on on a lot of the easy ones tonight but since we don't have our Town Administrator here and not everybody here has all their um budget um sheets with them we can hold this off until we meet again on the 17th because a lot of those budgets we're going to be able to go right through um and we'll have the updated information and we're have also yeah also we're going to have updated information which make it uh more accurate anyway and be a more accurate depiction of what we're recommending and what we're voting on um and then the last two budgets and most that we're going to basically wait on we probably going to be the we know it's going to be the school and police and probably Police Department because those are the the two biggest ones that we're going to make decisions on um so our last our last fincom meeting could possibly be on May 1st Wednesday May 1st um so that's when we'll probably take those those final budgets up CU I believe he's said he needs it by the third thir yes so so we have to have everything done by May 1st uh but a lot but in this next meeting that we have not next week the week after on the 17th um we can you know we should EAS be able to easily get through we're going to meet through school what the school vacation you think 24th 17th is school vacation oh that's right s so the Reas oh so I'm going to be away the week of the 20th to 27th if you guys don't want to meet on school vacation week and you want to meet on the 24th instead I just won't be here to hold the meeting somebody would have to be here I personally don't I yeah I should be around I'm around I'm so do it's up to you guys I mean that's we can talk about it right now I think we should have you here mean you've been a vital I don't have a problem with either day vital makes sense to have you here even if I'm not here on the 17th I can I can zoom in no we're saying not the 17th well it would be the 24th okay well I won't be I won't be able to be here on be 24th oh I know what you're saying yeah I'm not opposed of the school vation I would the recommendation that we have the meeting on the 17th and if everyone's in agreement I don't know I mean unless somebody unless somebody has plans like I mean if you're going away you're taking your kids somewhere that's fine that's that's a different story cuz if we were if we had a lot of that for that week then I'd say no we're not going to meet that week just by the members that are present we would have vac I just don't have it in the budget I'm available on the 17th all right so everybody can be available on the 17th yeah might be Zoom but I can be available all right and I think um I'm not sure about Kristen I think she might she could be available I think she's going to be available not 100% sure but we have enough to make the Quorum anyway with the people present MH I mean I I definitely for the for the last one though we all need to be we all need to be here um I'll I'll reach out to Mr St jeene hopefully he's feeling okay um to attend that last meeting um but I'll keep him up to date so if he wants to attend the next one he can attend the next one too um all right next on the agenda tonight we have some minutes to vote on from the meeting of February 28 2024 uh in attendance was myself Sue Delgado Eric Chu Bob Ferrera Kristen Flynn and Eric mlen absent with peo and Bob St jeene a motion second all in favor hi okay minutes are approved one exstension that wasn't here so can't vote on minutes okay so on on our agenda for tonight it says next meeting date April 10th it will not be next week we're going to wait until the 17th the next meeting date April 17 2024 and then the 1 you said right and then yeah then it would be May 1st after that and that's when we're going to wrap everything up and there'll be you know we'll have more clarity at that time as well a lot more yeah motion to adjourn we have a motion to adjourn second all in favor right all right we are [Music] adjourned [Music]