Thursday, May 8, 2014

Templeton wants tax bills paid

Templeton wants tax bills paid

Eryn Dion
News Staff Writer

TEMPLETON — On the heels of Tuesday’s ultimatum between eviscerating the town government or accepting receivership, the Board of Selectmen were told of another encroaching financial issue a town cash flow problem.

Without a balanced budget, the Department of Revenue will not certify the town’s tax rate, leaving the town unable to send out tax bills for the third and fourth quarter. Two estimated bills have already been sent out for this fiscal year but the money collected has not been enough to cover the town’s expenses.

“The town accountant has said to me that we have about $3 million in obligations to get through until the end of the (fiscal) year and we have about $2 million in cash,” explained Town Administrator Bob Markel. “So we’re short.”

Complicating the situation is a $2.65 million loan taken out by then Treasurer Dan Keeney to keep the town operating in the absence of tax revenue. That note will come due May 15 and must be discharged by June 30, or the end of the fiscal year.


“That money has been used to pay bills and meet payroll,” Mr. Markel said. “We’re running out.”

According to interim Town Accountant Matt Angell, the town will run out of cash around June 13.

“The solution to that is to set the tax rate and get the bills out and get revenue in the door so we can pay off the note and pay the bills,” said Mr. Markel.

The board originally planned to hold a tax classification hearing Tuesday to set the rate, but was unable to follow through after the override failed to pass on Monday’s ballot. Moving forward, the town has two options to balance the budget – make $505,000 in cuts to the current fiscal year’s budget as soon as possible or accept a $350,000 loan from the commonwealth and state control.

The “draconian” cuts to this year’s operating budget would leave the town government gutted, with more employees than not facing layoffs or furloughs until July 1. The public library and Council on Aging would remain closed for the remainder of the fiscal year and the police and fire departments would have their spending and payroll slashed. While the cuts would be devastating, they would allow the town to set its tax rate, get bills out and start getting revenue in the door.

The other option would be to accept the state’s loan and their financial intervention. The fiveyear loan would be paid back through $80,000 installments and come with considerable state control over the town’s finances. 

This option would still leave the town with a $505,000 gap in their budget for the coming fiscal year as well as $80,000 in additional cuts necessary to cover the loan payments. The legislation, after being introduced by state Sen. Stephen Brewer, DBarre, would need to pass through both the House and Senate and be signed by the governor before the town could receive any money, delaying an already dire situation.

“If it takes two weeks or more, that’s time going by where we haven’t sent out tax bills. We need to get tax money through the door prior to June 30,” explained Mr. Markel.

“The taxpayer has a month to pay so if you send out your tax bills midMay or the end of May, they have until the end of June,” he added. “It really cuts it close, although it could work.”

To help alleviate the burden, officials encouraged residents to pay their estimated tax bills to the town. 

Police Chief David Whitaker said he would work to put out a call asking for residents to send in their tax bills as soon as possible.

“We cannot run out of money in June and default on our various payments and obligations,” said Mr. Markel.

“The gravity of the situation cannot be overstated,” agreed Vice Chairman Kenn Robinson.

The Board of Selectmen delayed its budget decision until all members were present. The vote will likely take place during Thursday’s meeting in the Kiva at 5:45 p.m.

3 comments:

  1. It will be a help if everyone can kick in a few bucks to cover at least part of your taxes. We will have to do it sooner or later, so sooner is the best option. Think of it this way, if you pay now you will pay less later. Yes I know it hurts, but not as much as it will hurt our town workers. I hear the blame game is getting kicked around. It is something when people that we have not seen once at any kind of a meeting, can dump on the people from the Advisory Board. Yes a mistake was made, but it was not intentional. The truth is our past treasurer, Mr.Sawyer would not come back unless we paid him a small fortune. Seeing that was out of the question, the only option was to go it alone. For years the people in charge of the town's finances were playing a shell game, that was going to fail sooner or later. We are in the here and now, and the people on the Advisory Board have worked hundreds of hours, while everyone else sat in front of their televisions or computers. If you decide to criticize anyone, just tell me where were you when the Advisory Board was working to find a way out of the mess prior officials made to get us to this point ?? I think that these people are the ones you could be angry at, for they set the town up to fail, and it worked !! Bev.

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  2. Thank you to all the people who paid their anticipated tax bill. Yesterday, people paid $73,000 in taxes. Any amount of money will help with Templeton's cash flow problem.

    Thanks again.

    Julie Farrell

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  3. The one thing the tax payers in town can do is call the banks you have your home mortgages with and have them pay the balance of your escrow to the town. The need to do this is great and will help our town out of this hard time.I passed the word on to my bank today when cashing my pay check. They may not have got the word of the towns problem with cash flow.
    I asked them to look at all the loans they have with Templeton tax payers to see the amount it will impact our town
    situation.
    I would like to thank the BOS and Bob Markel for the will and backbone to do what needed to be done to keep Templeton from being the only town in the state to slide into recievership. I could see in the faces of the BOS and department heads they were all in great pain. We all need to work to better our town and improve the climate to be able to say we are proud to live and raise children in Templeton again.

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