Templeton meets deadline

Templeton meets deadline

Eryn Dion
News Staff Writer


TEMPLETON — Residents in Templeton can breathe a sigh of relief, as the town will continue to receive state aid payments for the rest of the year.

Interim Town Administrator Bob Markel stated that the town’s Schedule A form was submitted to the state’s Division of Local Services last week, just in time to receive their March payment.

The state division previously sent several letters to local officials to give them a March 14 deadline to submit the long tardy form, which was due Nov. 30, 2013. Should that deadline pass, the state would withhold the town’s March payment. All payments would be suspended if the form was still not submitted by March 31.

According to state division’s Cherry Sheets, Templeton is slated to receive $1.441 million in state aid for Fiscal Year 2014.

The Schedule A form is a 17-page document containing information about the town’s revenues, expenditures and balance sheets. The state division and other government agencies use the data to formulate local aid distributions and grants.

The delay was attributed to the ongoing struggle to close the books for Fiscal Year 2013 — a process that was also completed late last week. Mr. Markel said the books will be sent to the state Department of Revenue on Monday.

“The next step is to encourage the (revenue department) to certify free cash from FY13 so that it will be available for use at the Special Town Meeting on March 29,” he explained.

Mr. Markel said the revenue department warned the town’s financial team that any “junk numbers” would be rejected, but was confident the information provided by the town’s accountant would be accepted. While the Town Treasurer has been reluctant to release a free cash estimate, Mr. Markel said the town will start with around $94,000 left over from Fiscal Year 2012.

Last year, the town expected an estimated $194,000 back in free cash — however, due to issues and errors within the financial records, the state only certified $100,000. Mr. Markel commented that he did not expect FY14 free cash to cover the estimated $300,000 budget shortfall.

For Templeton officials, the next financial hurdle lies in getting a certified tax rate, which can only be accomplished once the FY 14 budget shortfall is resolved.

The tax recap sheet will be sent to the revenue department and the tax bills for FY14 will be delivered after the rate is certified — following the March 29 meeting, according to Mr. Markel.