Rockport Opera House October 19, 2016 6:00 P.M. Pre Budget Workshop Rockport Opera House October 19, 2016 6:00 P.M.

Purpose of tonight’s meeting A brief look at where we are today. What are our challenges going into the next year’s budget? Where do we go from here? (what do we want to ask the voters to support?)

Where we are today….

How did we end Fiscal Year 2015-2016? Audit work is currently underway, I would expect that we will have reports from them some time in December. Preliminary results say that expense are at about 99%, and department revenues are at 98%. State revenue sharing and other revenue sources were higher than expected. I would expect that we will be making a deposit to the unassigned fund balance.

First quarter results Fiscal Year 2016-2017 Our expense are between 20% and 30%, with the most being expended from Public Works. Paving seems to be on track with Porter Street being started shortly. There are no cash flow issues at this time. The next cash crunch will be February and March of 2017.

Infrastructure Project Updates Mill Street Bridge – has been completed Mt. Pleasant Street – has been completed School Street – has been completed Summer Street – They have been laying pavement this week High Sidewalk – the poles and power lines have been moved we are now waiting for Fairpoint and others to move their lines. This could hold us up until next spring. Public Works Garage Roof – Put off until the Spring West Rockport Fire Station – Put off until the Spring

Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) Rick and Megan have been working hard with department heads to develop a plan to present to the Select Board. We have almost completed the plan, and expect that it will be presented soon.

Challenges going into next year’s budget?

LD1 Limit (Tax Cap Levy)

What is the LD1 Limit… The property tax levy limit is the maximum amount of tax dollars the Town may raise from property taxes, without special vote at the annual Town Meeting Our limit for Fiscal Year 2017-2018 is estimated to be $3,483,962 (assuming we have $3 million dollars in property value growth) The limit assuming no growth would be $3,472,818 These limits mean that we would have to reduce our current budget by just over $300,000

How is LD1 Calculated… Step One: Step Two: Insert last years (current year) tax levy limit: $3,376,914 Insert the amount of NEW taxable value (this would include any new construction, additions, renovations, etc.) We can assume for this calculation we have had $3,000,000 in growth You then add the NEW growth to the prior value Current years value is $933,930,744 Total Value is $936,930,744

How is LD1 Calculated (cont.)… Step Three: Step Four: Divide the new growth by the prior year value $3,000,000 divided by $933,930,744 This gives you a growth factor of 0.0033 Take the growth factor (0.0033) and add it to the income factor (provided by the State at 0.0284) This gives you the growth limitation factor which is (0.0317) You then add 1 to this number which gives you the actual growth factor of 1.0317

How is LD1 Calculated (cont.)… Step Five: Zero Growth: Take the prior year limit and multiply it by the growth factor $3,376,914 * 1.0317 = $3,483,962 which would be the LD1 Limit. If we had zero growth the LD1 Limit would be $3,472,818 This is $11,144 less than the limit as if we had $3 million in growth

What do these numbers mean to us? If we were to have $3 million in growth we would have to cut just over $300,000 from our current budget… If we choose to go over the LD1 Limit we will have to have a special vote at Town Meeting to exceed this limit. Our beliefs are this is something we are going to face for years to come. We can place a special article on the warrant for permission to permanently exceed the LD1 Limit if we so choose. This doesn’t mean we will always go over it just gives us the option to.

Things we predict are coming up… Insurance Health Insurance is projected to increase by 10% this equates to about $53,464 County Tax The initial proposed county budget show a 3% increase this equates to an increase of about $29,850 Library If the Library Bond passes that will add about $0.15 on the mil rate Schools We have no predications at this time for the CSD or for MSAD 28 MCST if passed will have an effect of about $0.19 on the mil rate

Things we predict are coming up (cont.)… Debt New Debt this year: Public Works F350 – replace the Wastewater Truck Public Works Loader – trade in the old one Retired Debt Sand and Salt Shed Bond Police Department Overtime – an increase of about $20,000 to cover overtime shift for sending an officer to the academy (this could possibly be offset by money from the Police Department Career Development Reserve account Video Replacement System $18,000 (will be included in the Capital Improvement Plan)

Things we predict are coming up (cont.)… Town Office Generator - $25,000 Opera House There are many items that are in the Capital Improvement Plan, we will have a more definite plan once that is completed and approve plan Parks and Recreation Irrigation and Field Maintenance increase by $5,000 from $0 Planning Pathways Project Harbor More dinghy dock space

What should we be doing now? Things to discuss and consider: What do we feel is an appropriate mil rate? Do we have a target in mind? What do we want the budget to look like? What are our priorities?