The Elephant in the Room

The Elephant in the Room

Fascinating meeting working meeting last night. The Liars Club met to discuss actions to remedy the 31 page management letter released on April 25, 2017.


Haven't seen this kind of tap dancing since I don't know when:

Lots of tap dancing at last night's meeting, although not of the caliber displayed above.

The good news, a number of policies and procedures are to be adopted to correct some of the material findings in the 31 page management letter .

The bad news? Given the demonstrated track record of the selectmens' inability to follow their own policies  and procedures, there is much doubt about policies and procedures fixing any of the material weaknesses found in the 31 page management letter, if those policies and procedures are not enforced.

 The Elephant in the Room?

The major problem detailed in the 31 page management letter, is the lack of a Treasurer/Collector who can perform all of the duties and responsibilities of that office:

bank reconciliations in a timely manner

cash flow statements

knowledge of bonds and borrowing

processing turnovers

Reporting on Schedule A correctly

There was a lot of tap dancing around that issue.

The other problem detailed in the
31 page management letter, the lack of a full-time, permanent town administrator.  

Who will ensure that these new policies and procedures will be enforced?

Fact -There is $142,000 in stabilization to backup a $15 million dollar budget.

Fact- Templeton does NOT have a bond rating.

 Fact-

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"THE TOWN HAS FAILED TERRIBLY IN MANAGING ITS CAPITAL PROJECTS AND CORRESPONDING FUNDING:"

Management Letter p13, Tony Roselli, CPA April 25, 2017.

 The Definition of Insanity

Bob MMay 15, 2017 at 2:10 PM

I think it's pretty amazing that our town just passed a budget including NRSD that amounts to almost $2,000 per man, women and child in Templeton! To look at it another way, it's about $4500 per every working person! How about this, it's about $6,200 per household.

So what town services do I get for my $6200.........hmm. I get roads, very damn expensive bumpy roads. I have no children in school, I dont use town services, ok, I'll cough up some money for Fire/EMS as I might like them available.

Now lets talk about the 1186 disabled people. If they get SSDI they average about $1300 a month. At best we are asking them for 20% of their income and at worst if the own a home about 50% of their income for town services.


Wait till the economy tanks again, which it always does, always will and what happens. Across the board these markets are going to hit a wall. Nothing anywhere is actually being paid for, it's just being borrowed further up the chain. Can't pay credit cards, refi your house, can't refi your house, refi your 401k, can't rifi your 401k, file banakruptcy and nobody gets paid.

Just expand this to government. It's already happening around the globe. Hell, look at Puerto Rico. Look at our town, state, federal government....deeper into debt. A larger and larger portion of taxes going to cover old debt.
Look at the government employment structure. It's completely unsustainable. 20 year retirement plans that start paying year 21 are insane. Think about it. If every single cop/doc/fire/etc employee retired at 20 we could effectively be paying for 2.5-3 employees for every single job being done. How much has healthcare cost for retired state workers risen since they retired. How much more is it now than anticipated...............

oh enough, it's not raining anymore.

Bev. I have an interesting stat for you. From the 2000 census. It shows that 1186 people in Templeton are listed as disabled

To Bob M. - The budget passed(FY 18) is unbalanced, just like last year's budget (FY 17). Last year the Selectmen's  solution to an $87,500 shortfall, was to raid the $142,000 stabilization fund at the October 20, 2016 special town meeting.

Fortunately, that article was defeated. About  a week later, the $87,500 shortfall ballooned to over $200,000. End of the year transfers will need to take place to "balance" FY 17.

The FY 18 budget passed at town meeting is at least $100,000 in deficit. Can't wait to see how large  that $100,000 figure will balloon.

The federal government kicked the can down the road as far as a budget until September.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is currently behind in tax revenues for FY 17.
"“There were no answers today other than, I think, a shared commitment to find the right way forward," Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr said after the meeting of minds resulted in a number of theories being batted around as to why, in a period of economic growth, the state seems to lurch from budget crisis to budget crisis. 

Baker said he's working through a solution to the $462 million shortfall in revenues hoping against hope that May tax collections will alleviate some of the pressure on this year's state budget.

But things could be worse. Again, just look down I-95 where Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy is confronting his own state's revenue shortfall by emptying the Nutmeg State reserves and proposing to pull back on local aid payments. It hasn't gotten that bad here ... yet.

But the hole already dug means that as things stand now tax revenue would have to grow by almost 5.8 percent next year to make the math on the House's budget and the one filed by Baker add up. Given recent history, that would be like betting on Pablo Sandoval to steal 50 bases next year."

 The town has unbalanced budget for FY 18.

"A shit storm is coming, and you don't have the right umbrella."
                                                                                Dolena Brand