Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-09-25-AC-min.pdf 9/25/2025 AC Minutes 1 Minutes Town of Lexington Appropriation Committee (AC) September 25, 2025 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; Alan Levine, Secretary; John Bartenstein; Eric Michelson; Vinita Verma; Lily Yan; Carolyn Kosnoff, Assistant Town Manager, Finance (non-voting, ex offi- cio) Members Absent: Sanjay Padaki, Vice-Chair; Anil Ahuja; Sean Osborne Other Attendees: Lisah Rhodes, Capital Expenditures Committee (CEC) At 7:33 p.m. Mr. Parker called the meeting to order and took attendance by roll call. All votes recorded below were conducted by roll call. Committee Report to the 2025-2 Special Town Meeting Mr. Parker and Ms. Kosnoff led a discussion for each proposed warrant article based on the draft list in the Select Board packet on September 10, 2025. Except where noted, the following articles will be covered in the Committee’s report. Ms. Kosnoff stated that she expected no action under “2. Appropriate for Prior Year Unpaid Bills” and “5. Authorized Capital Improvements”, so these two articles would be indefinitely postponed. 3. Establish/Dissolve/Appropriate To/From Stabilization Ms. Kosnoff stated that there would be a transfer of funds stemming from new growth in the tax levy into the Capital Stabilization Fund. The exact amount is yet to be determined. 4. Amend FY26 Operating, Enterprise, CPA Budgets Ms. Kosnoff stated that she has received one request to amend a department budget, but it involves overtime pay and she believes it is still too early in the fiscal year to make such adjustments. The only other changes involve minor updates to debt service based on actual bond issuances, and updates to the MWRA assessments. 6. Establish, Amend and Continue Departmental Revolving Funds Amendments are proposed for the Tree Revolving Fund (increase $60,000), and for the Compost Revolving Fund (increase $50,000). 7. HERO Act This article asks the Town to accept M.G.L. Chapter 59, Section 5, Clause 22l (HERO Act). This would change property tax exemptions for qualifying veterans and surviving spouses, and it would allow for annual increases to these exemptions based on a consumer price index. The change would not be revenue-neutral, but the number of qualifying veterans residing in Lexing- ton is small. 8. Establish Qualification for Senior tax work off (increase from $1755 to $2000) This article will be deleted from the warrant. 9/25/2025 AC Minutes 2 9. Debt Exclusion This article will request the appropriation for the construction of the new Lexington High School, which will be contingent on a town-wide debt exclusion referendum. The Committee will provide an in-depth report on the design of the new high school, with a focus on the features of the building, the costs and trade-offs considered, and the financing plan. In response to a question from Mr. Levine, Ms. Kosnoff confirmed that the estimated total project cost includes the $11.825 million that has already been appropriated for design work. Mr. Parker asked if any member planned to vote against the high school appropriation. No direct objections were raised, but Mr. Michelson said he would abstain if the Town did not intend to pur- sue the Article 97 process. Mr. Michelson asked that the report include rebuttals of a brief list of arguments against the appro- priation request. Mr. Parker suggested that it would be best not to repeat the arguments of the oppo- sition, but that the report should include arguments, in a positive format, that address all major con- cerns expressed by the opposition, including issues with the timing, scale, location, and the total cost of the project. 10. Article 97 After recent legal updates on the status of certain parcels in the area that would be the site of the new high school, there is speculation that the Town might not need to go through the Article 97 pro- cess. Mr. Michelson expressed his desire that the Article 97 process be approved as a guarantee to the Recreation Dept. that the Town will provide a complete and comparable replacement for land that is lost during construction of the high school. There is no appropriation requested under this article, and it will not be covered in the Committee’s report. The Committee will not need to make recommendations in regard to the two housekeeping articles, i.e., 11. Housekeeping-Town bylaw change- remove reference from newspapers to electronic media including websites, and 12. Housekeeping-Lexhab- clarification language for IRS, since these do not appear to have financial implications. Report Planning Assignments for the draft report were captured on a spreadsheet. Other Comments Mr. Bartenstein mentioned two possible local option statutes that might be worth considering in the future, if not at the upcoming special town meeting. One, MGL c. 59, § 5o, would allow the Town to create property tax exemptions for properties that are rented as affordable housing. The other, MGL c. 53, § 18B, would allow the Town to publish a concise summary of arguments in favor of and opposed to a town ballot question, as is done for ballot questions in state elections. Minutes of Prior Meetings Minutes for June 12, 2025, were approved by a vote of 6–0. Future Meeting Schedule The Committee plans to meet at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 9, Tuesday, Oct. 14, Thursday, Oct. 23, and at 7:00 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 3, prior to the start of the 2025-2 Special Town Meeting. 9/25/2025 AC Minutes 3 The Budget Summit that had been planned for October 16 will be postponed to November 20 due to a scheduling conflict with the School Committee. Mr. Parker asked if the presentations for the sum- mit could be made available in time for an Appropriation Committee meeting on November 13. Ms. Kosnoff replied that the presentations would be published in multiple phases in advance of Novem- ber 20, and she would try to release much of the material by November 13. Adjourn The meeting was adjourned at 8:27 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Glenn P. Parker Approved: October 9, 2025 Exhibits ● Agenda, posted by Mr. Parker ● Report Assignments Spreadsheet by Mr. Parker