The report of the RTM Finance Committee for the May 27 Special Representative Town Meeting is posted on the Town’s website.
Go to: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rO3ELZP6e8HewXSf4CmYVbYtCaximdvL/view
The Finance Committee met weekly while the Selectboard was working on the revised budget and then held four meetings in May to prepare the report.
It begins....
“We Are Alarmed
The Finance Committee grows increasingly concerned about the Town’s finances. During
FY26 budget development, we have witnessed accounting errors, lack of strategic thinking
and planning, and unprecedented depletion of emergency reserves, among other issues.
Any of these factors alone would worry us. Taken together, they have put us on high alert.
In this report, we identify what we believe to be systemic problems. These include lack of
strategic financial planning and analysis and of fundamental operational controls. These
circumstances made the eleventh-hour work of the Selectboard to revise the budget more
difficult and have also challenged the Finance Committee’s ability to analyze their revisions.
Concerning patterns include (but are not limited to):
● Late-breaking budget adjustments totaling more than $1M, resulting in a net
increase of expenses (see “Major Changes in the Revised FY26 Budget,” page 5)
● Inadequate planning and saving, such as deferred capital and maintenance
expenses across departments (see “New Cuts in the Revised Budget,” page 6)
● “Aspirational” thinking, e.g., questionable expectations regarding overtime (see
“Overtime in FY25 and FY26,” page 10)
● Lack of transparency, including poorly explained adjustments occurring day to day
and hour to hour (“Financial Transparency and Accountability,” page 8) and
inconsistent estimates of personnel costs (“New Expenses in the Revised Budget,”
page 7)
● Downplaying of legitimate concerns, such as the significant deficiencies in the FY24
audit (see our original 2025 report)
All of this has been taking place against a backdrop of rising costs and increasing risk in
our financial environment as well as a lack of preparedness to cope with such risks (see
“Looking Ahead: Risks and Opportunities for FY27 and Beyond,” page 8).
This report tells, as best we can, where we are and how we got here.”
Go read it.
Copies
It would have been nice if the Town made copies available for people at the library??