2022-03-28-CEC-ATM-STM-rpt - Laserfiche WebLink

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CAPITAL EXPENDITURES COMMITTEE REPORT TO 2022 ATM& STMs 2022-1 & -2 The funds available for these State supplements are taken from a surcharge on the transaction fees charged by the State's Registries of Deeds. The FY2020 Massachusetts Budget provided for increases in registry fee surcharges which fund the CPATF. As no further increase in the rates is currently projected, the supplements will vary from year to year with the level of activity at those Registries. For some previous years, the State had allocated additional funds to the CPATF if the State's prior-year's budget ended with a surplus. However, the State's budgets did not always end with a surplus. (See the footnotes to the above table.) The Lexington CPF receives the annual receipts from our local surcharge, the State supplement, and interest on the balance in our Town's CPF. Under the statute, 10% of the total received each year is allocated to each of the following categories: Community Housing, Historic Resources, and Open Space. The remaining 70%of this income may be spent for any of these categories or for Recreation. Funds may be accrued from year to year and are available for debt service on previously approved projects. A CPA-funded project can only be brought to Town Meeting for action through recommendation by the CPC whose membership, in our Town, is prescribed in the Code of Lexington as follows: § 29-23A. There is hereby established a Community Preservation Committee pursuant to Section 5 of Chapter 44B of the General Laws (the "Act") consisting of nine members. The Board of Selectmen shall appoint three members of the Community Preservation Committee and the following bodies shall each select one of its members for membership on the Community Preservation Committee: the Conservation Commission, the Planning Board, the Recreation Committee,the Historical Commission,the Housing Authority, and the Housing Partnership. Town Meeting can only approve, reduce the funding, or disapprove a project; it cannot change the purpose. Town Counsel has provided an opinion that Town Meeting can change the funding mechanism for a given project (cash or debt). This Committee gives our recommendation on each of the projects put before Town Meeting. See the report of the CPC for information on how Lexington has spent from the CPF since 2007. The projected available CPF cash is not a limitation on what the CPC can recommend to Town Meeting for spending approval. The CPA can—and often does—include debt financing which is then paid over the term of the borrowing using the CPF. This Committee has always stated that cash funding should be the first preference. However, (1)Any such debt should be for as short a term as practical, with and payment front-end loaded, as practical, after considering the funding projected for the CPF (not including any State supplemental funds) over at least the next 10 years; and (2) Such debt should be approved only after consideration of potential future projects that might come before the CPC for consideration which would require funds beyond those allocated to the three, mandatory reserves for Open Space, Historic Resources, and Community (Affordable)Housing. The debt service is an obligation borne by the CPF throughout the term of those instruments—whether short-term financing (i.e., notes, such as a Bond Anticipation Note [BAN]) and/or long-term financing (i.e., a bond). It is the Town's practice that each year's debt service will be paid from any funds remaining in the reserve category under which that project was eligible—whether or not initially financed from that reserve—before use of other available funds. In subsequent years,the CPC recommends to Town Meeting those obligatory debt-service-payment appropriations. (See Article 10(m).) One approach that provides flexibility in deciding how much, if any, CPF cash should be applied up front for a large project is to defer that decision by initially issuing a BAN for a term of one year or less for the full amount of the project. (A BAN typically carries an interest rate that is below even the relatively low rates paid on the Town's bonds.)When a BAN matures, a decision can be made whether to use CPF cash to reduce the total for which a longer-term bond would then be issued. Doing so gives the Town a better idea of how much CPF cash should be held in anticipation of the next—and later—years' demands upon the CPF. This mechanism has been used in the past, and this Committee expects it to be proposed in the future for other large projects. The CPC carefully husbands available funds, and this year has recommended only those projects which can be funded with current income and funds on hand, after debt service and its administrative costs. The 9