Back in January, MA governor presented her budget for FY26. Commonly called house 1.
House 1 state aid to Templeton - $2,075,790.00
House ways & means $2,041,391.00
Used in revenue totals for the budget you just voted on Wednesday, total state aid for FY26 $2,048,909.00
Anyone have a crystal ball to tell me exactly how much total state aid Templeton will get? Can anyone tell me if Templeton will collect 100% of personal property and real estate taxes for FY26?
Town budget is a crap shoot based on estimates; there is financial history to aid in arriving at those estimates, but, nothing in stone.
Same with chapter 70 state aid to school districts.
Just in case you did not realize that.
Templeton Financial Policy regarding a balanced budget!
ReplyDeletePolicy:
*The Select Board and the Town Administrator shall present to the Advisory Committee, for their
review and recommendation(s) to Town Meeting, a balanced budget in which revenues equal or
exceed expenditures. The service offerings contained within this budget shall be proposed with
sufficient and appropriate staffing, professional development, material, and equipment and
facilities that are well maintained and operating within their useful life spans as is deemed
necessary for a quality offering of the service addressing statutory, regulatory, safety and
community expectations. Expenditures shall be realistically budgeted and estimated revenues
shall be conservatively budgeted to allow for unanticipated events. The balanced budget presented
shall include the estimates and assumptions behind the revenue estimates utilized in preparing
the proposal.
The Town will not use budgetary procedures that balance the budget at the expense of future years,
such as postponing or deferring payment of expenses already incurred, accruing future year
revenues, or rolling over short-term debt to avoid making principal payments.
The Town will not balance the budget by using one-time or other nonrecurring revenues to fund
ongoing expenditures, except in the event of an emergency or extraordinary or unforeseen events.
If extraordinary or unforeseen events necessitate a budget in which current revenues are less than
current expenditures, and which thus relies one-time revenues to balance, the Board and the Town
Administrator shall provide along with the budget a plan to return to a structurally balanced budget
in no more than three years.
The Town budget shall also reasonably support a financially-sound operating position by
maintaining reserves for emergencies and providing sufficient liquidity to pay bills on time and
avoid revenue anticipation borrowing. (See also C. Reserve Funds/Fund Balance Policies.)
The past 2 years we have used one time monies to render the Town Budget. in fy 25 we used $430,000 from General Stabilization and in fy26 we just approved using $173,534 from free cash for school and accountant.
Has anyone seen the 3 yr plan to get us out of this mess as required by the Finaicial Management Plan?
This pick and choose relationship our administration has with rules and regulations needs to stop!
The above comment is from Bob May as is this reference..........
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