2013 Town Meeting - Night Five

I apologize that I missed the first half of tonight's meeting.  I had to appear before the Everett ZBA on behalf of a client, and the meeting took longer than expected.  I arrived right as break was called.  I missed the review of the Minuteman budget, but I understand it was passed.

When things started after break, we completed the review of the town budgets.  Apparently there was an amendment proposed to transfer $300K from the reserve to the schools to offset student fees.  (It was discussed at the start of tonight's meeting, so I missed it.)  I try to avoid additional expenditures without offsets elsewhere in the budget, so I voted against it.  The amendment did not pass, but we approved the overall budget for the year.

We approved the creation of a stabilization fund for special education funding, so funds budgeted but not spent in a given year can be retained and made available in a future year should needs change.

We ended with a long discussion of the capital budget.  An amendment was presented reallocating funds for a parking study towards new trees to replace those lost last year.  There was a lot of fun discussion about whether a tree was a capital expense and whether one could bond a tree.  In the end we voted down the amendment and approved the budget.  Since it was nearly 11:00, we adjourned until Wednesday.