The Finance Committee is close to setting the budget guideline for Fiscal Year 2025 but decided to wait until late November due to lack of sufficient information.
Committee Chair Parashar Patel said a focus of the discussion was how to treat so-called Tier 1 capital items, or those costing under $250,000.
“Should they be part of the operating budget (current practice for the Town) or part of a capital warrant (current practice for the schools)?” Patel wrote in an email after the meeting.
“Unfortunately, key information necessary to evaluate the potential impact of spending increases on the taxpayers was not available” for the October 26 meeting, the FinCom noted.
Separately, the Select Board wrote to the FinCom to express its interest in pursuing revenue in addition to spending.
“The board agreed now is a good time to revisit PILOT (payments in lieu of taxes) agreements with appropriate parties,” Select Board Clerk Mary Hartman wrote. “We hope to have an action plan developed in the spring of 2024.”
Hartman noted that “other areas of revenue that we intend to pursue in the short-term include updates to user fees and chargebacks.”
The Select Board also said the executive committee of Concord250 “is committed to pursue funding through grants, state funds, federal funds and private donations” to defray costs to the town for the celebration.
Hartman said “Source and Use” of funds will be discussed with the Select Board at its December 4 meeting: “We should have a better understanding of the potential need for funds from the town after that discussion.”
