FY 2007 - Town of Uxbridge

The Finance Committee is composed of seven
(7) registered voters of the Town. With the
passage of the Charter, four (4) members are
appointed by the Town Moderator and three (3)
are elected. The role of the Finance Committee
is: primarily, to investigate and report to town
meeting on articles included in the warrant;
and, secondarily, to manage the Reserve Fund.
Town meeting is the local equivalent of a legislature
wherein the town adopts by-laws and
appropriates funds for governmental purposes.
The Finance Committee’s recommendations on
the warrants for this year’s town meetings have
been contained in published documents made
available for the town meetings and are included
in the records of these meetings reported
elsewhere in this report.
The Reserve Fund provides an instrument for
meeting “emergency or unforeseen expenses”
without the need for a special town meeting.
The FY07 began with a Reserve Fund balance of
$100,000. The Transfers from the Reserve Fund
are listed below.
In its role as an advisory board, the Finance
Committee worries about the Town’s short-term
and long term finances. The Town has been
fortunate to end the last three fiscal years with
Free Cash amounts in excess of $1.0 million.
These funds were used to pay operating costs or
added to the Stabilization account. Prior to the
Spring Annual Town Meeting the balance in the
Stabilization account stood at $1.8 million – or
5% of the FY08 proposed budget.
Finance Committee
The Finance Committee
would like to see the Town
set a policy that the
Stabilization account
should be funded at 5% of
the operating budget. The
action would serve three
purposes:
1. It would establish the
fund at a level to withstand
any major financial
crisis;
2. The existence of such a
policy, assuming it is put into practice, will
help with the Town’s bond rating; and
3. Finally, any fund in excess of the 5% target
could be used to help fund the Town’s capital
needs.
The need to fund the Town’s capital requirements
is a major concern. In January, the
Capital Planning Committee reported that,
excluding the enterprise funds – water, wastewater,
ambulance and cable – $641 thousand
in capital need was funded between the FY02
and FY07. This left $3.7 million in unmet need
during the same period of time. The Capital
Planning Committee has identified over $27
million in capital projects for the next five years
– exclusive of the cost of a new high school.
Unfortunately, the Town faced its own
financial crisis at the Spring Town Meeting.
Following the defeat of a Proposition 2 1/2
FY07 Reserve Fund Appropriation $ 100,000.00
Selectmen Expense (35,000.00)
Town Accountant Expense (3,500.00)
Lighting US Flag (500.00)
Police Expense (7,500.00)
Building Expense (1,305.00)
Veteran’s Expense (11,000.00)
Library Salaries (4,189.00)
Historical Commission Expense (1,250.00)
Total Reserve Fund Transfers Approved ($ 64,244.00)
Balance: $ 35,756.00
override, town meeting voted to transfer $1.2
million dollars from Stabilization to balance
the FY08 Budget. This left the Town in the
uncomfortable position of an unbalanced
budget going into FY09 and very little in
reserves. Going forward, the town needs to
determine how it is going to: 1) balancing the
operating budget, 2) fund major capital needs
and 3) create new sources of revenue to help
fund items 1 & 2. Equally, if not more important,
the Town needs to do a better of informing
voters of the financial challenges and options
before them.
Respectfully submitted,
Ed Maharay, Co-Chair
Mary Pat Wickstrom, Co-Chair
Mark Andrews, Peter DeMers, Howard
Fortner, Christine Horwath, Rick Young
The FY 2007 Town Report contains the following
sheets: FY 2007 Tax Collections; the
combined Balance Sheet; Special Revenue Fund
balances; FY 2007 General Fund Receipts; FY
2007 Local Receipts; FY 2007 Budget to Actual,
and the FY 2007 Recap Sheet. We will continue
the Town’s tradition of presenting detailed
financial reporting in the Town Report, as well
as to the community on an ongoing basis
through the course of public meetings and via
the Town website.
There have been personnel changes within
the Town Finance Offices over the past year.
Justin Cole, our new Town Accountant was
Finance Director
appointed to his post in April 2007. Justin and I
are now working to improve the financial
reporting models through Vadar, and I expect to
make great strides in the coming fiscal year.
I would also like to welcome our new staff
members, Kelly Poulin and Ellen Mayo, who
joined the Treasurer/Collector’s Office in 2007 as
well. Kelly is our new payroll coordinator; Ellen is
responsible for tax collection and receipt processing.
Real and personal property tax collection
rates rose to 98.1 percent collected by the close
of the fiscal year, and increase of 2.1 percent
over FY 2006. Local receipts were by in large on
target.
I would like to thank my staff, the Town
Manager, department heads and their staff for
their assistance, cooperation and understanding
during the past year.
Please be advised that I am always happy to
answer any questions concerning my portion of
the Town Report, about the office or Town
finances in general. Please feel free to contact
the office at (508) 278-8606, or (508) 278-8607
or via email at findir@uxbridge-ma.gov.
Respectfully submitted,
David A. Genereux
Finance Director,Treasurer/Collector
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