2024-01-18-AC-min - Laserfiche WebLink

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1/18/2024 AC Minutes 1 Minutes Town of Lexington Appropriation Committee (AC) January 18, 2024 Place and Time: Remote participation via a Zoom teleconferencing session that was open to the public; 7:30 p.m.–9:30 p.m. Members Present: Glenn Parker, Chair; Sanjay Padaki, Vice-Chair; Alan Levine, Secretary; Anil Ahuja; John Bartenstein; Eric Michelson; Sean Osborne (7:57 p.m.); Carolyn Kosnoff, Assistant Town Manager, Finance (non-voting, ex officio) Members Absent: Lily Yan Other Attendees: Marilyn Fenollosa, Community Preservation Committee (CPC); Thomas Case, CPC Administrator; Charles Lamb, Capital Expenditures Committee (CEC); David Kanter, CEC; LexMedia At 7:34 p.m. Mr. Parker called the meeting to order and took attendance by roll call. All votes recorded below were conducted by roll call. Announcements and Liaison Reports Mr. Padaki attended his first Recreation Committee meeting as a liaison. Most of the meeting was devoted to discussion of tennis and pickleball issues as well as of Recreation program fees. Ms. Kosnoff stated that a program summary and a list of program improvement requests are in- cluded in the Select Board packet for their meeting next Monday, and that she expected the entire White Book to be released on January 19. Ms. Kosnoff also very briefly reviewed some of the topics that will be covered at Financial Budget Summit III on Thursday, January 25. CPC Appropriation Requests at the 2024 Annual Town Meeting Ms. Fenollosa attended as a representative of the CPC to present the community preservation pro- jects proposed this year under Article 10. Using a PowerPoint presentation, she began by summariz- ing the funding history and future projects anticipated to come before the CPC. She stated that debt service for the renovation of the Cary Memorial Building will be fully retired in FY2025, and that larger requests are expected for recreation projects in the years following FY2025 in anticipation of many fields becoming unavailable during construction at Lexington High School. She noted that Community Housing has seen less funding than other types of projects in recent years, but that will be changing with the creation of the Affordable Housing Trust and with new projects at LexHAB and the Lexington Housing Authority. Ms. Fenollosa observed that the state funding match hit a peak in 2022 and has declined since then. The state did not have a surplus available to augment CPA funds during FY2024. The recent statewide decline in home sales and mortgage refinancing activity has lowered the revenues used for the CPA funding match. This year, FY2024, the state matching rate is only 21%, and the rate in FY2025 is predicted to be about 15%. The funding available for CPA projects in FY2025 is roughly $11.6 million, which includes approx- imately $3.5 million from the current balance, $7 million in estimated local tax surcharge revenue, $940,000 in state matching funds, and $150,000 in interest income. Ms. Fenollosa explained that the