Tri-Board Meeting November 15, 2016

Tri-Board Meeting November 15, 2016

I would like to bring to your attention to my concerns about the future revenues and expenditures of the town.

The State has a projection of extensive loss of revenue presently and in the future, Simsbury has already had to reduce the expenditures of the Board of Education budget. This is just phase 1. With a projection of continued loses of revenues from the State, Simsbury will have to be fiscally responsible and reduce the 7% policy for Capital expenditures. The Board of Finance should not increase the repayment schedule of Capital expenditures and remain with the 10 year policy for bonding.

All future Capital expenditures should be brought forward with a cost analysis for overhead expenditures and future maintenance schedules. The Board of Finance should mandate that all maintenance of roads, parking lots, brick walks and sidewalk expenditures be placed in the operating expenditures of the budget. The experiment of reducing budget items on the supposition of anticipated savings failed and should be eliminated as a budgetary tool.

Blum Shapiro was contracted in 2014 to perform an audit of the financial statements of the town, They made several recommendations

• Internal Controls
• Capital Asset Reporting
• Fraud Tip Line - Town and Board of Education
• Accounting Procedures Manual
• Positive Pay System

How many of these recommendations have been implemented?

Due to low interest rates, Simsbury has been the recipient of a building bubble that will require increased resources and services. Bubbles burst and the anticipation of future taxes will be reduced over the years. An analysis of the projected costs associated with increasing the population by about 3 thousand people should be required.

SCTV is an integral part of the analysis for the renovation of Eno Hall for a Senior Center. SCTV at the present time requires 1600 sq.ft. of space. The library basement presently has 29000 sq. ft. of unusable space. Presently the infrastructure for cables is presently available at the library. The move to the library would be cost efficient and timely. In the past there has been an analysis of moving SCTV to the Library that could be used for implementation of the process. Over time the library has evolved into a community center. Having a media center in the library will increase services to the town and will be an asset to the community.

In a Memorandum on July 11 2016, Town Engineer Jeff Shea wrote a Status Report on Capital Projects that are presently active. It states, “Fifty Six (56) projects valued at $29.85 million are in varying stages of construction and design.” Why so many open accounts? All accounts should be closed in a timely manner and all remaining revenues returned to the General Fund. The Board of Finance should establish a policy on unexpended revenues for Capital projects so that many of the accounts can be closed. Presently, this is an accounting nightmare.