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APPROPRIATION COMMITTEE REPORT TO 2008 ATM—March 19, 2008 Preface Every year presents a new challenge in regard to producing a report to Town Meeting. This year the budget calendar was revised to achieve a very worthy goal, i.e., to conclude Town Meeting action on the operating budget as early as possible. This is intended to become an annual practice so that, in years when positions in the Schools are at risk in an override referendum and the proposed tax increase receives approval from the voters, the Schools can make offers to fill those positions earlier than has been the case in previous override years. The financial articles are currently scheduled to be taken up on March 24. Since the Warrant was not released until early February and the budget to be presented to Town Meeting was not finalized until February 13, this did not give us a lot of time to prepare our report. Nonetheless, we have made our best effort; we hope you find this report informative. 1 This report is primarily intended to document our recommendations; we do not always attempt to present information that is already easily available to Town Meeting members. In particular, the Town Manager and staff have given an excellent overview of the estimated revenues and proposed expenditures for FY2009 in the “FY2009 Recommended Budget & Financing Plan,” dated February 22, 2008 (the “Brown Book”) which has been distributed to all Town Meeting members and is available online at http://ci.lexington.ma.us/TownManager/Budget/budgetrecommended09.htm. The recommended Lexington Public Schools budget is available online at http://lps.lexingtonma.org . Overviews from the Town Manager and Superintendent, as well as many details on the nuts and bolts aspects of the budget, may be found in these materials. In addition, the Brown Book summarizes relevant budget laws and bylaws (see Appendix B therein) and includes a glossary of financial terms (in Appendix D therein). The “TMMA Warrant Information Report” (March 2008) is also an important reference for this Town Meeting, and the forthcoming report of the Capital Expenditures Committee (CEC) is essential. Continuing a useful practice, this year we participated with the Board of Selectmen, School Committee, and CEC in five budget collaboration/summit meetings. These meetings were excellent opportunities to discuss the most salient budget issues and for us to give preliminary advice to the members of the other boards and committees. It has again been a pleasure to work with Town Manager Carl Valente, Assistant Town Manager for Finance Rob Addelson, Budget Officer Michael Young, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Paul Ash, and Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Operations MaryEllen Dunn, the Board of Selectmen, the School Committee, the CEC, and the Community Preservation Committee (CPC). We also thank the many other municipal and school staff, Town officials, and citizens who have contributed to our work in a wide variety of ways. 1 The recommendations herein are those of the eight members as of March 1, 2008. Page 6 of 50