Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Fire Chief Hired and budget woes unresolved

Fire Chief Hired and budget woes unresolved

Sterling Fire Lt. Kevin Grebinar was appointed as the new Templeton Fire Chief at Monday's Selectmen meeting. This appointment was made after a split 3-2 vote.

Welcome aboard, Chief!

In other business, the advisory committee has identified a number of budgetary issues that need attention:

KNOWN FINANCIAL ISSUES
FY17 Budget
·       Over stated revenues
1.     15-20K new growth
2.     Excise tax 60-100K
·       Salary and wage account over spent
1.     35k Budgeted
2.     55k spent approx.
·       Over payment on long term debt of 87,500 which needs to come out of FY17 budget
·       Approx. Total of 165,000 to 185,000 needs to be reduced from Budget passed at ATM
·       2% raise given to most employees effective in July, even to those who had received large raises in FY17 budget passed at ATM
·       Chart of accounts and FY17 budget document both have accounts listed on one but not on the other which could cause a possible unaccounted finances on the BvA
·       Chart of accounts does not have account numbers for encumbered items
Sewage issue
·       60-80K of FY16 Sewage bills were not encumbered and will have to be paid from FY17 budget which could cause a potential deficit in the FY17 budget passed at ATM in FY17 sewage budget
Pending issues

·       FY13,14,15 & 16 still need to be audited
·       FY13 impacted by FY12 end of year balances (question as to if FY12 was closed out?)
·       FY13 Schedule A was not filed with DOR (Why?) How was tax rates set without it being filed?
·       FY13 deficit 1,045,471.19  Impacts any free cash from FY14,15 or 16
·       Potential of deficits in FY14, 15 etc.  ?
·       NO BOND RATING
1.     Impacts towns ability to borrow  money for any projects
2.     Recent issue obtaining BAN for water project
3.     Can potential effect Sewage borrowing for their project
4.     If no bond rating by the time borrowing needed for Police and new elementary school it could affect these also
·       Debt exclusion for police station of approx., 975,000 to be split between 2 years has a projected TAX impact of approx. 1.00 per thousand
1.     Borrowing rate unknown could be from 3.5% to 5% depending on bond rating
·       Debt exclusion for new elementary school of Approx. 24,500,000 for 28 years could have a TAX impact of 2.49 to 2.95 per thousand depending on the interest rate of 3.5% to 5% or more depending on bond rating.
·       Bond rating impacted by audits and town unable to seek rating until all audits completed sometime in calendar year 2017 at the earliest.
·       Bond rating also requires 7 items to be in place (these items were presented to BOS on July 11, 2016 in presentation given by Advisory committee.
  

It remains to be seen what will happen to ALS service in Templeton. Will Templeton be able to retain the Advanced Life Support ambulance service without a very large cash infusion from the tax payers? Where will the money come from?

Will the selectmen chose to raid the stabilization account to fund operating expenses? Will the selectmen chose to inflate new growth and excise taxes to try to cover the shortfalls? Will the selectmen review the budget to actuals to ensure departments will not overspend their accounts? 


 

7 comments:

  1. Can anyone tell me who is responsible for the lie we were told about $1.74 per thousand? 170% potential increase over what voters were told is unacceptable. 28yrs we will be paying for this terrible idea. Is anyone accountable? How about we put the additional $1.20 over what we were told on the school.

    I'm so sick of covering this terrible government. Does anyone know what the heck they are doing? It sure doesn't feel like it.

    It's time our government was flushed before it flushes the town.


    Disgusted!!!!

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  2. So based on this info basing it off the 2013 city data sites average valuation of $200,000 in Templeton. These numbers listed above for police station and school are going to add $800 a year for 2 years to property taxes.


    Happy Happy.................argh

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  3. Bob i will tell you this as i was there when we were told at one of the meetings on the new school. Dr Henmen told us the debt for loan for the high school or the middle school ,not sure which it was would be paid off the year we start on the loan/debt for the new elementary school. This equates to only a increase of the 1.74 roughly as we will see on the rates of the loan. That is how they sold this to the people in Templeton on the increased cost to the tax rates. This was not a guarantee of our tax base only increased but the amount it would be increased for just the school project.
    Your tax rate is going up 2.5% for the next 4 years is a good guess the way town costs increase.
    Do we need a roof on the fire station?
    If your roof was 50 years old and leaks would you need one?
    There are so many costs put off we don't address that we will need extra funds for.
    After asking for and being turned down for something why ask over and over again.
    When the roof falls in or the old equipment falls apart just call it a emergency again.
    Rob fire to pay snow and ice! Hows that working out for us.
    We were lied to about found money to use from fire /ems so we would vote yes to Markel's idea to use it and after we found out we made a mistake. We used it like a stabilization account we voted to not use it for only fire or ems.
    Disgusting!!!!
    I think we have a little of Hillary in our town government

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  4. bob, I sure didn't vote most of them in now or in the past.. bet you didn't either!!! when you get less than 100 people to the annual meeting, its obvious. the people in this town, for the most part, pay no attention to what is going on, or what people running for office stand for and with. put me in the "deplorable basket". but i'm proud to be there !!!!!

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    1. Thank you to the people who still care enough to attend meetings and vote. It is reassuring to have people in the room who I can depend on to use their common sense, and stand up for what is the right thing for the Town. With out you, all would be lost. Scary isn't it ! Many of the people I have known and loved died so we could stand up for what is right, so please stand with me and the others who care about our Town ! Bev.

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  5. Dave, Brad,

    I believe we get 100 people at the ATM based on just what happened Yesterday. People take time out, vote no, then those who dislike it get to vote again and change it.
    How many times has a YES vote been revoted? This pissed me off over the school vote a couple years ago. I voted NO 3 times only to be outvoted by another town?

    Dave, I get the $1.74 issue. Based on the estimate from advisory it appears we could be hit with almost $4.00 a thousand next year for school and police. Like you mentioned it does not even address the many other issues facing the town.

    It's my understanding that Phillipston student will attend the new elementary school. If I'm correct are they going to be paying anything towards this school and if not, why?

    I didn't attend the meeting, but seriously wonder what changed so it is now approved with conditions? Kickbacks? It's time we get really serious about conflicts of interest among our boards/departments.

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