So, the board of selectmen (current) have been solving issues, according to liar johnny columbus but they are still using one time funds to support their latest spending plan along with a transfer from the ambulance receipts fund to the general fund, sound familiar?
So if the revenue numbers are correct, why do they need to use one time revenue to fund their plan?

A little confusion from Advisory Committee member Kate Fulton, who stated it was up to the moderator to decide if the spending plan is looked at line by line; she was corrected that it is town meeting, as in the people in attendance who decide that!

posted by Jeff Bennett

from the pages of the Massachusetts municipal Association;

Sections 21 through 23 were enacted to offer a process by which a municipality may modify health insurance benefits without engaging in the traditional bargaining process.


Faced with ever-increasing health insurance costs, municipal employers are searching for relief. Frustrated by attempts to implement changes through traditional collective bargaining, many cities and towns have used the statutory process provided by Sections 21 through 23 of Chapter 32B. Sections 21 through 23 were enacted as part of the 2011 municipal health insurance reform legislation to offer a process by which a municipality may modify health insurance benefts (aka “plan design”) without engaging in the traditional bargaining process. Sections 21 and 23 provide a procedure by which a municipality may transfer its subscribers to the Group Insurance Commission (GIC). Section 22 permits a governmental unit that has followed the procedures outlined in Section 21 to include in its health plans “copayments, deductibles, tiered provider network copayments and other cost-sharing plan design features that are no greater in dollar amount than the copayments, deductibles, tiered provider network payments and other cost-sharing plan design features” offered by the GIC in, as applicable, the non-Medicare or Medicare plan with the largest subscriber enrollment (i.e., the GIC “benchmark” plans). Presently, the GIC non-Medicare benchmark is the Tufts Navigator plan, while the GIC Medicare benchmark is the Unicare State Indemnity Plan/Medicare Extension OME. While many municipalities have decided to include in their plans all of the features (at the maximum dollar amounts) that Section 22 allows, a municipality may elect to include only certain of the allowed features and/or may include features at a lower dollar amount than the amounts in the benchmark plan. Under Section 23, a governmental unit may only transfer its subscribers to the GIC if it can demonstrate that the anticipated savings that it would realize would be at least 5 percent greater than the maximum possible savings that it could realize if it made the full plan design changes allowed by Section 22. As the GIC benchmark plans contain features that are not contained in most municipal plans (for example, an upfront deductible) and/or that are considerably higher in cost to subscribers than similar features in many municipal plans, adopting the GIC plan design features or transferring subscribers to the GIC can have a signifcant impact on a municipality’s health care costs. The Process Accept Sections 21 to 23: Section 21 sets out the procedures that a municipality must follow in order to implement the changes allowed by Sections 22 and 23. The frst step involves the acceptance of Chapter 32B, Sections 21 to 23. In a town, these sections are accepted by vote of the board of selectmen. In a city with a Plan D or Plan E charter, the sections are accepted by majority vote of the city council and approval by the manager. In any other city, the sections are accepted by majority vote of the city council and approval by the mayor. Prepare Implementation Notice: State regulations governing Sections 21 through 23, issued by the secretary of Administration and Finance, require that the governmental unit’s appropriate public authority (APA) prepare an Implementation Notice. (In a town, the APA is the board of selectmen; in a city, it is the mayor.) The Implementation Notice includes, among other things, information concerning the changes to cost-sharing features that the APA is proposing to make to health plans, the estimated premium savings that will be realized during the frst twelve months following implementation (including the analysis that the APA has generated to support those estimated savings), the percentage of those savings that the APA is proposing to share with subscribers, and the vehicles that the APA is proposing to use to share the savings.

posted by Jeff Bennett

Capital planning has a quorum?

Stopping in to the Capital planning committee meeting last night, I found three members at the table; a quorum at last and thank you to selectmen Doug Morrison, Advisory Committee member Julie Farrell and a citizen, Bob M. I believe. While Doug Morrison and a member of the Advisory Committee have usually always been in attendance, having a quorum has been a problem for this committee, but now a citizen has stepped up and things can happen we hope,, as required by a Town by-law. Now if we could only get the board of selectmen to follow the Town's by-laws! Of course, they could be distracted with math class!

posted by Jeff Bennett


next up will be salary, benefits and taxes of town employees.

The statement from the Town Administrator that beyond this fiscal year 2018, the amount for veterans services will not be sustainable shows the questions the Advisory Committee has had about revenue since last year's spending plan disaster were and are still very valid. Answers and information seems to be harder and harder to get from town hall, especially from the selectmen's office. The apparent new mouth piece of at least one member of the select board does not really under stand this, it would seem, based on this town employee's published comments. It should also be noted it took about 9 months to get some debt numbers out of town hall, while word from there was that the financial team had everything all set.

Right now and really right along, the Advisory Committee's position seems to be that Town finances, including revenue, should be stated on the conservative side and that stated revenue should not be overstated. At least one member of the Advisory Committee had questions concerning new growth and those concerns turned out to be true and accurate.

Hard questions could not really be formed until a spending plan was made available so anyone could see the base being used to cover planned or stated expenses and that plan was not made available until some time in March, March 13, 2017 is the date on the memo from the Town Administrator concerning this plan. The more important question should be why was the town by-laws concerning the budget/spending plan and the town meeting warrant not followed again, by this board of selectmen. This is a question for this year, this time and for the current board of selectmen. Perhaps the town employee who is the mouth piece for at least one of the selectmen (in my opinion) should be asking that question at an open meeting.



posted by Jeff Bennett

Well, it strikes again, taking from the veteran's fund to fund something else does not seem like it will work past this year, so there will probably have to be more "adjustments" next year, which in my opinion, shows there is still not a good handle on the spending plan. Also brought out was some more interesting math on the part of one selectmen, John Caplis, which is how will a so called savings of $20,000.00 this year equate to a police officer salary for one more officer for a year? First off, 20 thousand will most likely get used up next year by health insurance costs for employees, school assessment and on and on. More importantly, a so called savings is already being spent before you even have any realized savings in hand. Reminds me of the other genius Johnny Columbus who suggested at one meeting to use some supposed free cash for some expense before there was any actual so called free cash. Oh yeah, don't forget about more full time fire fighters/EMT/P next year!

So, it seems there will be more questions, few answers that add up and another fun year.

email received today:

Good Day:

The attached scan is an iteration of what was discussed last Wednesday.  It will be page numbered, copied, and distributed to you tomorrow evening.  Please note some important things:

1. For those who have concerns the cut to Veteran’s is not sustainable in the near term; the fastest easiest fix at this point is to revers any of the restores in Snow & Ice, Police or Fire;
2. The adds to the Library assume each person can/will accept the added hours.  It is possible Library Assistant II may not be able to do so but there is no harm at this point in leaving those dollars in an extraordinaryly tight Library budget.

The SS shows the Overly history;  This is a DRAFT

The next DRAFT of the warrant will be out tomorrow.

We have reached out to MRPC to present to the BoS on 04/24 on the EDIC articles.

Many Thanks

Carter Terenzini

Interim Town Administrator

Town of Templeton

posted by Jeff Bennett

April 10, 2017

From the Massachusetts municipal Association:
The House Ways and Means Committee this afternoon released a $40.3 billion fiscal 2018 state budget plan that would increase overall state expenditures by 3.8 percent.
 
The House Ways and Means budget (H. 3600) is $180 million smaller than the budget filed by the governor in January, but it would make progress on a number of local aid priorities, including the full $40 million increase in Unrestricted General Government Aid that the governor proposed and communities are counting on.
 
The House bill’s Chapter 70 education aid proposal is $15 million above the governor’s recommendation. Under the House plan, school districts would, at a minimum, receive an aid increase of $30 per student.
 
The bill would also add $4 million to the Special Education Circuit Breaker account and $1 million to regional school transportation.
 
The full House will debate the budget plan during the week of April 24.
 
• Link to DLS website for proposed Chapter 70 and Unrestricted General Government Aid amounts for each community
 
Unrestricted municipal aid
H. 3600 would provide $1.06 billion for UGGA, a $40 million increase over the current fiscal year. The 3.9 percent increase, which matches the projected growth in state tax collections next year, would be the second-largest increase in discretionary municipal aid in nearly a decade. Every city and town would see a 3.9 percent increase in their UGGA funding.
 
Chapter 70
The House budget committee is proposing a $106.4 million increase in Chapter 70 education aid, with a provision that every city, town and school district receive an increase of at least $30 per student (compared to the $20-per-student amount in the governor’s budget).
 
The House budget bill would continue to implement the target share provisions enacted in 2007 and would build on the governor’s initial proposal to start addressing shortfalls in the foundation budget framework, by increasing the cost factors for employee health insurance.
 
In the context of a tight budget year, the House budget committee’s increase in Chapter 70 funding is welcome news for cities and towns. Over the long-term, the MMA will work to build on this increase and prioritize full funding for the recommendations of the Foundation Budget Review Commission.
 
Special education circuit breaker
House leaders have announced that they support increased funding for the Special Education Circuit Breaker program. The House budget plan would provide $281 million in total, although this is still short of full funding for a program that every city, town and school district relies on to fund state-mandated services. The MMA will work to continue building on this increase.
 
Regional school transportation
The House Ways and Means budget would add $1 million to bring regional transportation reimbursements up to $62 million. The MMA will work to continue building on this increase.
 
Charter school reimbursements
The budgets filed by the governor and the House Ways and Means Committee would both level-fund charter school reimbursements at $80.5 million, far below the amount necessary to fully fund the statutory formula that was originally established to offset a portion of the funding that communities are required to transfer to charter schools.
 
The fiscal 2017 funding level is $54 million below what is necessary to fund the reimbursement formula that is written into state law.
 
If this program is level-funded, the shortfall will grow to an estimated $67.1 million in fiscal 2018. The MMA maintains that this would lead to the continued and growing diversion of Chapter 70 funds away from municipally operated school districts, and place greater strain on the districts that serve 96 percent of public schoolchildren. The MMA argues that solving the charter school funding problem must be a major priority during the budget debate.
 
PILOT, library aid, METCO, McKinney-Vento, Shannon grants
The House budget committee’s proposal would level-fund payments-in-lieu-of-taxes at $26.77 million, add $600,000 to library grant programs, add $500,000 to METCO, and level-fund McKinney-Vento reimbursements at $8.35 million.
 
The budget bill would reduce Shannon Anti-Gang Grants to $5 million, however, a $1 million reduction.
 

posted by Jeff Bennet
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From a non free speech blog run by JEFFY been it

From a non free speech blog run by JEFFY been it

Apparently someone has this blog confused with constitutional issues, and I suppose the person (s) would say an open public meeting is a violation of free speech since anyone (most of the time) is able to attend an open public meeting but you have no right to speak unless the chairman allows it, so is that non-free speech. Oh, I turned off the comments allowed thingy for now.

Actually, this blog is an exercise in free speech and anyone is able to create their own and post their thoughts and opinions, it is not the mouth piece of any board, committee or otherwise. 

Now, in the fiscal year 2018 spending plan book, it has listed as major cost increases:

NRHS -                              $380,000.00

Health Insurance -               $75,000.00 (+/-)

Union/non-union COLAs - $50,000.00 (+/-)

Debt on 252                         $90.000.00 (+/-)

TA equity raise -                  $30,000.00

Legal consulting for MS-4   $17,500.00

On top of those increases, the town will lose general fund revenue from inspections of plumbing, gas and electrical because those funds will now go into a revolving account.

There were drops in costs for monty tech, retiree health cost, reorganization of DPW and that is probably a wait and see in my opinion.

Also, Monty Tech costs could just as easily increase in FY2019 and there seems to be no plan for a savings mechanism with regards to any of the stabilization funds.

Again, there was $47,500.00 in the Templeton reserve fund when the fire department needed $20 thousand plus dollars to repair a pump that required certain expertise above the town personnel. If the department had been allowed to go before the Advisory Committee and request the funds, another department's budget item would not have been thrown into shortage and thereby affecting many other things, such as the sitting of many town vehicles due to a lack of money to pay for said repairs. Even with the $20 thousand transfer, there would be still over $20 thousand in the reserve fund and only a month or so away from the magic may 1 time frame and only around six weeks or so before town meeting. 

Time will soon enough be here to see if the reserve fund is targeted by the selectmen for transfers to fix their mess of the FY2017 spending plan that they went on and on about at town meeting stating how it was proper, correct and balanced.

One town employee stated we should check with the two selectmen in the know, John Caplis on town issues and Johnny Columbus on school issues. I think I will pass on that advice!

So, to recap, some of this is from the spending plan book and some of it is my opinion, thereby exercising my free speech rights and sorry, anyone else does not have the right to comment on my thoughts, at least not on this blog, unless I allow it, so I guess someone will have to copy and paste it, what a concept, one town employee will now have to do exactly what they liked to chastise me for doing, copy & paste! go get em little davey.

posted by Jeff Bennett