2006-02-23-AC-min - Laserfiche WebLink

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February 23, 2006 d. Pam: Don’t play games with the voters. We should wipe out the idea there is known hidden money to be rung out. e. Eric: Asking for money for reserves: Should give the voters a choice on this. f. David: We should have reserves both for smoothing overrides and for solving fiscal difficulties and unexpected disasters. g. Roger: History says taxpayers would rather have money in their own pocket. He questioned whether or not we are on the margin with Moody’s regarding our Aaa rating and said we should tell the public what the answer is. h. Al: People get lost with the tiered concept. i. Tom: Tiers are not necessarily the proper presentation to voters. The three “tiers“ in the Superintendent’s budget were only meant to show options to the School Committee, and were not a proposal to do the override in tiers. There could be a separate question on maintenance. j. Olga: Social Services could be separated out. k. Al: Has a concern with what is on the override, particularly with one tier at $5.2M. l. Richard: The Board of Selectmen will likely do what the School Committee proposes for the school portion of the override. m. Tom: Suggested combining municipal and school reserves. n. Roger: Giving voters what the cut list is going to be is more effective. o. Eric: We should provide services more efficiently by combining municipal and school services, where possible. p. John R.: Story telling is important. Asking people to pay cash for reserves is difficult. People voted already for Lexpress and the fire station: why are we coming back again? People think certain things were voted for and thus they are sacrosanct. But clearly they can’t be, because if we make them so, eventually there will be no cut options. q. Deborah: Advocated annual overrides—transparent and simple. But she agreed mounting the campaign effort is difficult. r. John B.: Asked about the feasibility of an override with $6.7M to fund Municipal and School needs plus $1.5M more to be deposited in the Stabilization Fund with the aim of keeping the reserves at the end of FY08 level with the reserves now projected for the end of FY06—assuming a middle-of-the-road result in revenues above budget and the rest of the assumptions in Paul’s presentation at the February 23, 2006 summit. s. John R.: Wants general question, not specific services. We need more discussion on commercial tax-base increases. t. Eric: How do you increase the commercial tax-base? u. Roger: Evolution, not revolution. v. Olga: Number of hours of labor necessary to sell override (in 2004) was painful; it was an override after a failed override. w. Al: Too many questions dilute the message of the importance of the highest- priority items. x. Eric: Cost of annual override makes him uneasy. y. John R.: There is not a choice to get rid of services such as Lexpress. z. Richard: At the upcoming summit meeting decisions have to be made about what is in the base and what is at risk on the override, but not the questions. 2