2022-10-20-AC-min - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

10/20/2022 AC Minutes 1 Minutes Town of Lexington Appropriation Committee (AC) October 20, 2022 Place and Time: Remote Participation: in accordance with “An Act Relative to Extending Certain State of Emergency Accommodations”, signed into law by Gov. Baker on July 16, 2022, communication took place via a Zoom teleconferencing session that was open to the public; 7:30 p.m. Members Present: Glenn Parker, Chair; Sanjay Padaki, Vice-Chair; Anil Ahuja; John Bartenstein; Alan Levine, Secretary; Eric Michelson; Sean Osborne; Lily Manhua Yan; Carolyn Kosnoff, Assistant Town Manager, Finance (non-voting, ex officio) Member(s) Absent: none At 7:35 p.m. Mr. Parker called the meeting to order, confirmed attendance by roll call, and stated that the meeting would be recorded for the purpose of creating minutes. Mr. Levine agreed to take minutes in the absence of a recording secretary. Announcements and Liaison Reports Ms. Kosnoff reported that Town staff have submitted Capital Improvement Proposals (CIPs) for review and that they have been shared with the Capital Expenditures Committee. Committee Report to the November Special Town Meeting The Committee discussed several of the articles in the warrant for the November special town meeting and the draft of the Committee’s report. To start the discussion, Ms. Kosnoff displayed an updated one-page summary of the financial actions to be requested at the special town meeting. She stated that she expects no further changes in the numbers before the upcoming special town meeting, with the possible exception of the amount to be appropriated to the Opioid Settlement Account under Article 9. The changes in the summary from the version of October 14 were highlighted. Article 3: Specified Stabilization Funds The Finance Department and Assessor’s Office have nearly completed their estimate of new growth in the tax levy, and the Town’s report on this will soon be submitted to the Massachusetts Department of Revenue (DoR). The DoR usually takes two to three weeks to review such reports. The portion of the increase in new growth earmarked for appropriation to the Capital Stabilization Fund under this article has been revised from $1,600,000 to $1,675,999. Ms. Kosnoff noted that the motion under this article would appropriate out the entire remaining balance of the Debt Service Stabilization Fund and provide for dissolution of that fund. She also noted that the motion would authorize the automatic transfer of future short-term rental community impact fee revenue into the Affordable Housing Stabilization Fund without the need for further town meeting action. There was a motion and a second to recommend approval of Article 3. The motion was approved by a roll call vote. VOTE: 8-0. Article 4: Amend FY2023 Budgets Ms. Kosnoff’s updated summary of the financial actions to be taken at the Special Town Meeting identified two additional line-item changes that will need to be addressed in the Committee’s report. The first is a $10,000 increase in the Finance Department’s expense budget, which covers all Town