April 5 - Town of Falmouth

We have a set of detailed recommendations from our independent auditors
who have reviewed the Town’s finances and have some ideas for looking
at potential revenues.
We have local option revenues to evaluate, just different
service models for potential fees for the service, to take a closer look at
those utilities. But it is very difficult. I know even later on in the meeting
there’s an article to roll back water rates in the face of massive deficits in
that very department. And, as I said, this is going to be a lot of work and
it’s going to be extremely difficult. But in the study we’ve seen how
communities that have successfully adapted to the challenges of the fiscal
stress have shown management flexibility to consider new options and
also a public openness in decision-making and the ability to debate, make
some decisions and move on. And that is exactly what we’re going to
have to do right here in Falmouth. We’re not going to escape that.
To give you a sense of some of the power that you’re dealing
with in your organization, I want to point out it’s the property taxes that
really fueled this organization throughout both of these recessions. Which,
there was one in 2004 and one in 2008-‘09. The property taxes have been
strong, have been sustainable, have been growing. The property values
are high in this community and they have not been susceptible to the
economic fluctuations that we’ve seen in our other revenues.
If we can look at the next slide, I want to give you a little
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