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APPROPRIATION COMMITTEE REPORT TO THE MARCH 2013 ATM
<br /> have been settled, so this year's request is for $801,988. The municipal departments have asked that an
<br /> equivalent of 2.13% of their salaries be allocated to this account.
<br /> Line 8400 Finance—The Assessors Department is asking for two program improvements; $50,000 for an
<br /> Assessing professional services contract which would support legal costs for cases currently before the
<br /> Appellate Tax Board, and allow for an anticipated increase in the caseload; and $55,000 to add a third
<br /> full-time Residential Analyst/Inspector in order to reduce the work backlog.
<br /> Line 8500 Town Clerk—The Town Clerk is responsible for documenting actions taken by Town Meet-
<br /> ing. The $40,000 requested here is to implement electronic voting at the Town Meeting, in response to the
<br /> amending of Chapter 118 Section 17 (Voting) under Article 32. The request is for a one-time expense of
<br /> $35,000 for electronic vote recording hardware and software, and $5,000 for ongoing additional staff time
<br /> to maintain and operate the system. This line item also includes a decrease of$15,536 in personal services
<br /> and a decrease of$20,000 in contractual services. These reductions reflect that in FY2014 there is only
<br /> one town-wide election planned, not three elections as in FY2013.
<br /> Line 8600 Information Technology — The Information Technology department supports all the Town
<br /> Departments technology needs. This year's request includes $38,999 for Viewpermit hardware, for use of
<br /> inspectional services in Fire, Community Development and Engineering. It's a comprehensive, integrated
<br /> electronic permit management and tracking system that will allow real-time in-the-field access for the
<br /> staff, reducing paperwork and increasing accuracy. Additionally requested is: $3,500 for web hosting for
<br /> the LexEngage community forum; and $4,800 to install an independent network connection, which will
<br /> increase bandwidth and create a backup WAN in case the current RCN network encounters problems.
<br /> The Committee recommends approval of this request(9-0).
<br /> Article 5: Appropriate FY2014 Funds Funding Committee
<br /> Enterprise Funds Budgets Requested Source Recommendation
<br /> $7,888,530 Water EF
<br /> $8,800,750 Wastewater EF Approve (9-0)
<br /> $1,785,840 Recreation EF
<br /> This Article governs the appropriation of funds for the operation of the Town's three enterprise funds —
<br /> the Water Enterprise Fund, the Wastewater Enterprise Fund, and the Recreation Enterprise Fund —with
<br /> the exception of indirect costs which are appropriated under Article 4. For an overview of the legal
<br /> framework and accounting concepts that apply to the operation of an enterprise fund, please refer to Ap-
<br /> pendix B. The following discussion will focus on the anticipated expenses and revenues of the enterprise
<br /> funds for FY2014 and issues they raise.
<br /> A breakdown of the funding request for this article is shown in the following tables.
<br /> Water Enterprise Fund FY2012 FY2013 FY2014 %
<br /> Actual Appropriated Requested Change
<br /> Personal Services $603,565 $647,687 $667,183 3.0%
<br /> Expenses $387,265 $389,590 $395,200 1.4%
<br /> Debt Service $1,233,364 $1,299,091 $1,260,655 -3.0%
<br /> MWRA Assessment $5,049,999 $5,145,927 $5,565,492 8.2%
<br /> Total Requested in Article 5 $7,724,193 $7,482,295 $7,888,530 5.4%
<br /> Indirect Expenses $704,624 $665,848 $818,689 23.0%
<br /> Total Water Enterprise Budget $7,978,817 $8,148,143 $8,707,219 6.9%
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