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Summit Meeting – October 3, 2013 mitigation approved by Town Meeting in 2013. The plan is to use some of the strong revenue growth in FY2014 and apply $1.6 million to exempt debt mitigation. Mr. Valente suggested that the group may want to discuss whether that number should be increased. In response to Mr. Kanter’s (CEC) question regarding Projected Exempt Debt Service, Mr. Valente explained that this indicator was rated as marginal because of the projected growth into FY 2015, but it would be considered far from unfavorable. Mr. Valente would recommend increasing the proposed exempt debt mitigation of $1.6 million by approximately $300,000 or less. In response to Ms. Steigerwald’s (SC) question about changes in population, Mr. Valente commented that Lexington has seen an increase in its under 20 demographic and its 60-69 year old demographic which would indicate an increasing financial burden on the school system and social services. FY2014-2016 Revenue and Expenditure Forecast Mr. Addelson, Assistant Town Manager for Finance, presented general fund revenue and expenditure projections for FY2015 – 2017. He emphasized that the projection is not a proposed or recommended budget. Mr. Addelson noted that the forecasting methodology is a maintenance budget approach, that is, the projected increase in costs needed to maintain the current level of services reflected in the adopted FY14 budget. In general, it only includes increases driven by estimated inflationary pressures, current collective bargaining agreements and other existing purchase of service contracts. Revenues are generally projected based on historical experience. The difference between projected revenues and expenditures is characterized as “available balance/shortfall,” which means, the available balance that can be used to fund variable cost drivers such as capital projects, provide for prospective salary increases, restore services eliminated or reduced in a prior fiscal year, fund reserves, etc. Mr. Addelson gave a summary of revenue/expense projections as follows: FY2014 FY2015 FY2016 FY2017 Appropriated Projection Projection Projection Revenue: Total: $173,987,608 $179,245,315 $180,202,054 $186,500,826 Expense: Total $173,987,609 $175,352,475 $176,364,656 $181,605,420