2011 Town Report - Town of Ludlow

FINANCE COMMITTEEThe basic role of the Finance Committee is to act as the official fiscal advisor to the Town. The primary duties of aFinance committee are to advise and make recommendations to Town Meeting on budgets and other areas offinance. In addition, it has authority to make transfers from the Town’s reserve fund to departmental budgets forextraordinary or unforeseen occurrences.The Finance Committee is commonly involved in the budget preparation and review of budgets in preparation forthe Annual Town Meeting. Once department budgets are established, the committee reviews them and will makerecommendations on these requests to Town Meeting. Prior to the Town Meeting, the Finance Committee often inan effort to improve the budget preparation hearings and to keep the lines of communications flowing between theFinance Committee and Town Department Heads, we have voted to assign members from the committee to act as aliaison and participate in the budget preparation process within the different Town departments. The FinanceCommittee also reviews and processes transfer requests.The Ludlow Finance Committee meets on the third Wednesday of each month in the Finance Committee room ofthe Ludlow Town Hall. Meetings are scheduled from September through June with a recess during July and August.Emergency meetings can be called during the recess to handle necessary town financial business. All meetings areposted with the Town Clerk with as much advance notice as possible.Respectfully submitted,Heidi Fogg, ChairmanLudlow Finance CommitteeTOWN COLLECTORREAL ESTATE & PERSONAL PROPERTYReal estate and personal property bills for the Town of Ludlow continue to be due on the quarterly basis: August 1 st ,November 1 st , February 1 st and May 1 st . The 2011F tax rate was set by the Board of Assessors in December of 2010.The Board of Selectmen voted to adopt a single tax rate of $15.70 per thousand for both residential and commercialproperties. The amount of $26,900,998.05 was committed to us for collection. Over 8500 real estate bills wereprinted, processed and mailed by December 31 st , 2010. By the end of the fiscal year, we had collected or abatedapprox. $26,434,359.19 or 97% of the amount committed. Additionally we received $262,681.60 in payments for2010F real estate, $32,878.07 for 2009f and $9.32 for 2008F leaving a balance of $82,462.90, $8,312.71, and $0.00respectively.Approximately 800 personal property bills totaling $1,238,612.74 was committed to us for collection. By the end ofthe fiscal year, we collected or abated $1,220,269.29 or 98% of the amount committed to us leaving a balance of$18,343.45. Additionally, we collected $6,579.99 for prior years dating back to 2008F.To accommodate our residents, real estate and personal property taxes for the Town of Ludlow may now be paidonline. We realize the importance of keeping with the times and offering this new online payment option. This newpayment method serves to accommodate those Ludlow residents who want the convenience of paying their taxesonline, anytime day or night. We are fortunate to have found a banking partner, who has years of financialexperience and who adheres to strict security methods to protect our residents’ personal information. UniBank usesstate-of-the industry encryption methods which safely handle these transactions so that town employees never gainaccess to bank account information. The process for residents to pay online is simple: with your bill and checkbookin hand,15