FTPA Comments on Proposed Debt Exclusion

FTPA Comments on Proposed Debt Exclusion

News from:
FRAMINGHAM TAXPAYERS ASSOCIATION
Contact: Steve Kruger
(508) 788-1777

For immediate Release
FTPA Comments on Proposed Debt Exclusion
FRAMINGHAM, MA, December 17, 2004 - The Framingham Town Manager has recently proposed a Debt Exclusion Override for a group of capital budget items that collectively would cost in the neighborhood of $86 million. On Thursday evening, December 16, the Board of Selectmen, the Finance Committee, the Capital Budget Committee and the Chair of the Standing Committee on Ways and Means met to consider this proposal. The Town Manager’s proposal and Thursday’s joint session represent a clear departure from the town’s established capital budgeting process and imply strongly that the town’s current capital budgeting process is inadequate to meet the needs of the town. We would ask after all, if the town’s capital budgeting process was fully capable of meeting the town’s needs, why was the joint session on December 16 necessary? Indeed, based upon the FTPA’s own comparison of the town’s current capital budgeting process to a model process suggested by the state’s Division of Local Services (note 1), clear deficiencies in the town’s current process are apparent. We believe that under these circumstances the proper course of action for the town is to quickly mobilize the resources, as described in the next paragraph, to upgrade the current capital budgeting process to eliminate the deficiencies that exist.
Last Thursday’s joint session proposed the formation of an ad hoc committee to consider the next steps to be taken concerning the Town Manager’s proposal. The FTPA believes that this ad hoc committee should focus its energy on upgrading the town’s capital budget process, and not on considering the Town Manager’s debt exclusion proposal. We also believe that the composition of the committee, as proposed last night, should be expanded to include representation of the Government Study Committee, who are right now engaged in a comprehensive review of the Town Manager Act. Ideally the committee should also include the town’s Chief Financial Officer. However, since the town is currently without a CFO, an effort should be made to insure that the skills a CFO would normally bring to this committee are provided in some other fashion. The primary goal of the ad hoc committee should be to bring a new, strengthened capital budget bylaw to the next annual Town Meeting.
To put the size of the Town Manager’s list into perspective, $86 million represents roughly thirty times the size of the town’s current annual capital expenditure budget. Consider what this implies about the potential opportunity for misspending that exists if we proceed to move forward without a process that is rigorous and thorough and which takes into consideration all of the Town's capital budget requirements and their relative priorities. If there are capital projects of such an urgent nature that they cannot wait, then they should be put into the town’s current process so that they may be considered by Town Meeting next spring. Otherwise, the FTPA strongly recommends that further consideration of the Debt Exclusion Override proposed by the Town Manager be deferred until a strengthened capital budgeting process is in place.
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Note 1: See “Developing a Capital Improvement Program, A Manual for Massachusetts Communities”, prepared by the Massachusetts Division of Local Services’ Municipal Data Management and Technical Assistance Bureau, March 1997. This document is available through the DLS website at www.dls.state.ma.us/publ/misc/cip.pdf.

FTPA Comments on Proposed Debt Exclusion
News from: FRAMINGHAM TAXPAYERS ASSOCIATION Contact: Steve Kruger (508) 788-1777 *For immediate Release* FTPA Comments on Proposed Debt Exclusion FRAMINGHAM, MA, December 17, 2004 - The Framingham Town Manager has recently proposed a Debt Exclusion Override for a group of capital budget items that collectively would cost in the neighborhood of $86 million. On Thursday evening, December 16, the Board of Selectmen, the Finance Committee, the Capital Budget Committee and the Chair of the Standing Committee on Ways and Means met to consider this proposal. The Town Manager’s proposal and Thursday’s joint session represent a clear departure from the town’s established capital budgeting process and imply strongly that the town’s current capital budgeting process is inadequate to meet the needs of the town. We would ask after all, if the town’s capital budgeting process was fully capable of meeting the town’s needs, why was the joint session on December 16 necessary? Indeed, based upon the FTPA’s own comparison of the town’s current capital budgeting process to a model process suggested by the state’s Division of Local Services (note 1), clear deficiencies in the town’s current process are apparent. We believe that under these circumstances the proper course of action for the town is to quickly mobilize the resources, as described in the next paragraph, to upgrade the current capital budgeting process to eliminate the deficiencies that exist. Last Thursday’s joint session proposed the formation of an ad hoc committee to consider the next steps to be taken concerning the Town Manager’s proposal. The FTPA believes that this ad hoc committee should focus its energy on upgrading the town’s capital budget process, and not on considering the Town Manager’s debt exclusion proposal. We also believe that the composition of the committee, as proposed last night, should be expanded to include representation of the Government Study Committee, who are right now engaged in a comprehensive review of the Town Manager Act. Ideally the committee should also include the town’s Chief Financial Officer. However, since the town is currently without a CFO, an effort should be made to insure that the skills a CFO would normally bring to this committee are provided in some other fashion. The primary goal of the ad hoc committee should be to bring a new, strengthened capital budget bylaw to the next annual Town Meeting. To put the size of the Town Manager’s list into perspective, $86 million represents roughly thirty times the size of the town’s current annual capital expenditure budget. Consider what this implies about the potential opportunity for misspending that exists if we proceed to move forward without a process that is rigorous and thorough and which takes into consideration all of the Town's capital budget requirements and their relative priorities. If there are capital projects of such an urgent nature that they cannot wait, then they should be put into the town’s current process so that they may be considered by Town Meeting next spring. Otherwise, the FTPA strongly recommends that further consideration of the Debt Exclusion Override proposed by the Town Manager be deferred until a strengthened capital budgeting process is in place. ### Note 1: See “Developing a Capital Improvement Program, A Manual for Massachusetts Communities”, prepared by the Massachusetts Division of Local Services’ Municipal Data Management and Technical Assistance Bureau, March 1997. This document is available through the DLS website at www.dls.state.ma.us/publ/misc/cip.pdf.

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