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CAPITAL EXPENDITURES COMMITTEE REPORT TO 2012 STM(NOVEMBER 19,2012)
<br /> Article 3: Funds Requested Funding Committee
<br /> ESTABLISH AND Source Recommendation
<br /> APPROPRIATE TO $1,600,000 for a General Fund Approve(5-0)
<br /> SPECIFIED new, capital- (Cash)
<br /> related,
<br /> STABILIZATION Stabilization Fund
<br /> FUNDS
<br /> "To see if the Town will vote to appropriate sums of money to Stabilization Funds in accordance with
<br /> Section 5B of Chapter 40 of the Massachusetts General Laws for the purposes of: (a) Section 131 Zoning
<br /> By-Law, (b) Traffic Mitigation, (c) Transportation Demand Management, (d) School Bus Transportation,
<br /> (e) Special Education, (f) Center Improvement District; (g) Debt Service, (h) Transportation Management
<br /> Overlay District(TMO-1) and(i)Avalon Bay School Enrollment Mitigation Fund; create and appropriate
<br /> sums of money to one or more new Stabilization Funds in accordance with Section 5B of Chapter 40 of
<br /> the Massachusetts General Laws for the purposes of capital projects and/or debt service related thereto;
<br /> determine whether the money shall be provided by the tax levy, by transfer from available funds, or by
<br /> any combination of these methods; or act in any other manner in relation thereto.
<br /> "DESCRIPTION: This article proposes to establish and/or fund Stabilization Funds for specific
<br /> purposes. Money in those funds may be invested and the interest may then become a part of the particular
<br /> fund. The use of these funds may be appropriated for the specific designated purpose by a two-thirds vote
<br /> of Town Meeting."
<br /> [Town of Lexington Warrant to the 2012 STM,November 19, 2012]
<br /> The 2012 Annual Town Meeting (ATM) recognized that there was projected to be $3,379,821 in
<br /> unallocated revenue available in FY2013 that had not been considered when that year's budget had been
<br /> developed as a result of health-insurance savings from the Town's transition to participating in the State's
<br /> Group Insurance Commission (GIC). While $1,116,250 of that projection was subsequently appropriated
<br /> by that Town Meeting to the FY2013 budget, in accordance with the finance committees'
<br /> recommendation, the question of how to allocate the then $2,263,571 balance of the unallocated revenue
<br /> was deferred until this Special Town Meeting. Since then, the estimate of that still-unallocated FY2013
<br /> revenue has been increased to $3,093,000.
<br /> In addition to the above-cited still-unallocated revenue, the Town's assessors have recently increased,
<br /> with high confidence, the estimated "New Growth" from $2,000,000 to $2,800,000 and that provides an
<br /> additional $800,000 of unallocated revenue. (At the time of this writing, that increase has not yet been
<br /> certified by the State's Department of Revenue; therefore, while some or all of it can be proposed for
<br /> appropriation at this Town Meeting, until it's certified it couldn't be considered when setting this year's
<br /> tax rate next month.) That raises the still-unallocated FY2013 revenue to $3,893,000.
<br /> Under this Article, passage of the Motion would create and initially appropriate $1,600,000 of that
<br /> revenue to a new Capital Projects/Debt-Service Stabilization Fund whose purpose would be to provide
<br /> funding toward capital projects and/or the debt service on such projects. (All such projects and available
<br /> funding for them are within the scope of this Committee's responsibility to make recommendations to
<br /> Town Meeting.) This Committee understands the need for, and endorses, at least that amount of
<br /> appropriation to that new Stabilization Fund for that purpose.
<br /> This Committee takes no position on the appropriation of$2,293,000 of the balance of those unallocated
<br /> funds. At this writing, it is expected that $1,000,000 will be used as a supplemental funding to the
<br /> Pension Fund; $500,000 as supplemental funding to the Other Post-Employment Benefits (OPEB) Fund;
<br /> $200,000 for the Town's unexpected, additional, cleanup costs resulting from the passage of superstorm
<br /> "Sandy" last month; and $15,000 for property & liability insurance premiums greater than budgeted—all
<br /> of which will be proposed under Articles 2 & 4 of this Town Meeting. That leaves $578,000 still
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