2018.12.06 BOS Summit II - Laserfiche WebLink

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Page 2 of 6 Ms. Barry (BOS) asked why Veteran Services has been level funded if the caseload is decreasing, as the department has reported. Mr. Malloy said that Veterans' Benefits revenue lags behind a year from expenses. The Town will check to see if the number should be adjusted in subsequent years due to lower caseloads. Ms. Kosnoff said that FY2020 Revenue Set-Asides for Designated Expenses can come from one or more of three different sources: Tax Levy; Free Cash; and the Capital Stabilization Fund. She noted that the line item "Appropriate into Capital Stabilization Fund" has been decreased from $2.5M at the Summit I to $1.6M at Summit IL A new line item—"Transition Free Cash out of Operating Budget"—marks the effort over the coming five years to gradually move away from using Free Cash to support the Operating Budget; Ms. Kosnoff stated that best practices use Free Cash for one-time expenses and not for the Operating budget. Addressing Other Post Employee Benefits (OPEB), Mr. Levine (AC) asked if there will be a transfer again this year from the Health Insurance Trust Fund. Ms. Kosnoff stated that $750,000 will be transferred to OPEB via the Tax Levy to slowly eliminate the Trust as required by the Department of Revenue. Mr. Kanter (CEC) asked if there has been consideration of moving away from the degree to which budget projections have been conservative so that less Free Cash is generated. Mr. Malloy said that each line item could be scrutinized to determine where Free Cash is being generated but he fears this will send a message to departments that if they do not use their allocations entirely, they will erode their baseline budgets for the next budget cycle. Mr. Padaki (AC) said that quarterly forecasts could be used to hold departments accountable to projected expense and revenue targets. The Revenue Allocation Model shows that there is $229,266,000 to be allocated in the FY2020 budget. Ms. Kosnoff noted that the "Tax Levy Support for the Community Center" line item has been moved out of the Shared Expenses budget into the Municipal column. Summing up all expenses, in the model (FY2019 School and Municipal Base budgets„ Shared Expenses, and designated Set-Asides), the total committed amount for FY2020 is $221,321,000; the difference between this and the total amount available $7,944,000 , is the incremental amount which will be proportionally split between the Municipal side (26.3%) and the School side (73.7%). To be used in creating their FY2020 budgets. The Municipal-side would therefore receive just over $2M in revenue and the Schools would receive $5.89M. Mr. Kanter (CEC)requested that the BOS revisit its policy on how discretionary funds applied to potential uses (e.g., the Other Post Employment Benefits Trust Fund (OPEB),the Pension Liability, etc.). Ms. Colburn (SC) asked why Street Improvement is categorized as an expense shared by the Municipal and School budgets. Ms. Kosnoff said that her understanding is that the practice of sharing this expense stems from an agreement made following a previous override. Ms. Colburn asked if it is policy that the incremental revenue resulting from every operating override be deemed a Shared Expense. Ms. Kosnoff does not believe this has consistently been the practice,