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APPROPRIATION COMMITTEE- STM 2016 -3 pal outstanding but also upon the interest rate of the borrowing. Conservatively assuming a rate of 4 %, the first full interest payment would be about $2,640,000. The interest payments would then decline line- arly to zero over the term of the bonds. The total of principal and interest due in the peak year would be about $4,800,000. With these assumptions, the tax bill impact on the owner of a residence of average assessed value would be an amount in the range of $350 to $400 in the peak impact year. After the peak year, which will be within a few years of project commencement, the impact would decline to roughly $200 in the last year of full principal and interest payments. It is expected that funds from the Capital Stabilization Fund will be applied to mitigate the impact on taxpayers for some portion of the debt service during the peak years. Committee Comment The Appropriation Committee supports this request. Committee members are cognizant of the taxpayer impact, particularly in light of other expensive capacity- building projects that are needed at the elemen- tary and high school levels, but are satisfied that appropriate efforts have been made by the School De- partment and the Public Facilities Department to reduce project costs as much as practicable. Consultants have considered many design alternatives suggested by other boards and committees, undertaken a value engineering process, and subjected the designs to peer review, while remaining on schedule to have new capacity available by the fall of 2017, when enrollment is expected to rise significantly. The Committee recognizes that if these projects do not move forward, the overcrowding that exists now will become much worse. According to the Superintendent and middle school administrators, class and team sizes would continue to rise, core spaces would become even more compressed, specialist spaces could be sacrificed, and more students could be sent out of district for special education. These conditions would likely result in an unacceptable degradation of educational quality. The Committee recommends approval of this request (9 -0). Article 2016 -3.3: PEG Access and Cable Related Fund Acceptance Funds Requested Funding Source Committee Recommendation None N/A IP The inclusion of this Article on the Special Town Meeting warrant was motivated by recent changes in State finance regulations that would have required the Town to modify the accounting method used for monies collected by the Town from local cable franchises. These funds are primarily used to pay for ser- vices from LexMedia, which provides access to local cable channels and video recording and broadcast for many boards and committees in the Town. The State has since indicated that the accounting changes may be unnecessary. Therefore, the Town has chosen to defer implementing any changes. The Committee anticipates that this Article will be indefinitely postponed. 5