2005-01-13-AC-min - Laserfiche WebLink

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January 13, 2005 Minutes Town of Lexington Appropriation Committee January 13, 2005 Place and time: Cary Hall, Room 105, 7:30 p.m. Members present: Al Levine, Rick Eurich, David Kanter, Ron Pawliczek, Eric Michelson, John Bartenstein, Paul Hamburger Also present: Selectman Bill Kennedy Meeting opened at 7:45 by Chair Al Levine Old Minutes 1. – Minutes of the 1/6/05 meeting were reviewed and, upon receipt of inputs from members, DK will revise and distribute copies to all members for further review and pending approval. Moody’s Meeting – 2. DB reported on her and PH’s involvement in the planning for the upcoming Moody’s Bond Rating meeting. The town’s Bond Consultant (Cinder McNerney, Sr. VP, First Southwest Co.) believes that a downgrade will be unlikely due to town’s actions that were taken in FY05 to address the structural problems, and combined with the town’s strong demographics that potentially can support an Aaa rating. As of this time the presentation will be based on the FY06 Pro Forma with a $2.6M gap. It will also show positives such as additions to the Stabilization Funds, no use of free cash, and will also highlight our pension fund. That fund is 84.7% funded th (10 best of all retirement systems in the state), has a fully funded date of 2015 (state th mandated date is 2028), and 4 best compared to similar communities. This is all after we took one pension holiday and are supporting an early retirement package. DB also reported on other FY06 issues that have come up during these planning sessions. -BANs will be rolled over, instead of issuing bonds. -Pro Forma Levy limit Debt service line item will be reduced by $900,000; $400,000 due to increasing the terms of recently issued debt; $500,000 due to rolling over BANs instead of issuing additional debt. -The anticipated increase in the Fed rate will adversely effect short-term rates much greater than it will the long-term rates on bonds that we issue. -A lump sum SBAB reimbursement of $26,282,315 is scheduled to be received on 2/1/05. This should arrive prior to the reissuing of the BANs, and will help reduce carrying the amount of BANs needed. John Ryan, Linda Vine and Cinder will be addressing how to structurally deal with this lump-sum payment. -A $900,000 premium was made on the FY05 issuance of debt. Its effect on debt service, tax rate and undesignated fund balance levels are to be researched. -$500,000 - $600,000 will be available from the NESWC stabilization fund. Most members felt it should go into reserves.