2006-10-26-AC-min - Laserfiche WebLink

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October 26, 2006 Minutes Town of Lexington Appropriation Committee October 26, 2006 Place and time: Town Office Building, Room 111, 7:30 PM Members present: Alan Levine (Chair), Deborah Brown (Vice-Chair), John Bartenstein (Secretary), Rod Cole, Richard Eurich, Pam Hoffman, David Kanter, Eric Michelson, Rob Addelson (ex officio, non-voting) Others present: Michael Young (Budget Officer), Tom Griffiths and Tom Diaz (School Committee), Patrick Mehr, John Fedorochko The meeting was called to order at 7:40 p.m. Michael Young said that Town officials are planning to distribute “brown” budget books for the Annual Town Meeting and only publish the more detailed “blue” budget book after the Town Meeting has concluded. He asked the Committee if there were any comments or objections. After discussion it was decided that prior to the Town Meeting staff would make available upon request any files that have details at the level of the blue budget book. Otherwise the Committee concurred with the strategy. The Committee discussed assignments for our report to the special town meetings. They were: CPC proposed projects - David Kanter and Eric Michelson School finance – Pam Hoffman and Rick Eurich DPW facilities – Alan Levine and David Kanter Water/sewer finance – John Bartenstein Senior tax workoff – John Bartenstein. Tom Griffiths requested that shared expenses (pension, health insurance, and certain other expenses) be broken out in terms of the gross categories of school and municipal departments. John Bartenstein noted that it would be useful to have a primer on retiree health care costs. The Committee voted 8-0 to request from Rob Addelson that the shared expenses be broken out per Tom’s request. In the context of the School Committee’s request for an appropriation to cover special education (SPED) expense increases at the upcoming special town meeting, there was discussion of circuit breaker funds that the School Dept. receives for certain special education expenses. Questions were raised as to how much was, for purposes of the FY 2007 budget, expected to be received in FY 2007 and how much was actually received. Questions were also raised as to whether there would be any other reimbursements, e.g., from Medicaid, that would cover any of the cost increases and what portion of the cost increases is due to new students in the system. As part of this discussion it was noted that the School Committee needs to decide how to handle expense increases that occur after the special town meeting. - 1 -