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09/19/2019 AC Minutes Minutes Town of Lexington Appropriation Committee (AC) September 19, 2019 Place and Time: Samuel Hadley Public Services Building, Training Room, 7:30 p.m. Members Present: Glenn Parker, Chair; Sanjay Padaki, Vice-Chair; Alan Levine, Secretary; Eric Michelson; Meg Muckenhoupt; Nick Nichols; Lily Manhua Yan; Carolyn Kosnoff, Assistant Town Manager, Finance (non-voting, ex officio) Members)Absent: John Bartenstein Other Attendees: Deepika Sawhney, School Committee Liaison The meeting was called to order at 7:33 p.m. Announcements and Liaison Reports After a brief discussion, a motion was made and seconded to elect the following officers for this Committee: Mr. Parker, Chair; Mr. Padaki, Vice-Chair; and Mr. Levine, Secretary. The motion passed. VOTE: 6-0 (Note: This vote was taken prior to the arrival of Ms. Yan.) New Committee Member Mr. Parker welcomed Ms. Muckenhoupt as a new member of this Committee. He reminded members that there is still one membership opening; suggestions for candidates should be forwarded to Deborah Brown, Town Moderator. Revenue and Expense Projections included in AC Reports Mr. Michelson and Mr. Nichols discussed their review of the revenue/expense projection report that is included in this Committee's report to the Annual Town Meeting (ATM). Their comments included the following: • Although staff currently prepares its own projection report each year, this was not always the case. Prior to staff assuming this task, Town Meeting voted that such projections should be part of the AC report, and this was formally incorporated into the AC charge. • It appears that the AC projection is redundant and not relevant to Town Meeting members or staff. The differences in the two reports are minimal and mostly reflect the timing of their preparation. • The projections in the AC report provide a range of estimated personnel wage settlements, so it would be challenging to quantify the accuracy of past AC reports. • In 2017, the Town changed the categories used in their projections. A meeting with Jennifer Hewitt, Budget Officer, has been arranged to understand the changes. • It appears that the Town projections have underestimated property tax revenues and State aid. Ms. Kosnoff noted that estimated tax revenue and State aid are intentionally conservative figures, adding that new growth, which impacts tax revenue, is a challenge to project. She also commented that the Town uses conservative health insurance estimates. During discussion, it was noted that while projections can be used for influencing policy decisions, this Committee does not set policy but only makes policy recommendations. Mr. Michelson noted that there are currently three issues being considered by the Select Board: 1