Thursday, August 23, 2012
Will give up chairmanship of financial watch dog group to focus on development.
Elizabeth Allison is on the move. Allison is trading in her post as chairwoman of the Warrant Committee, the powerful financial watchdog group, for a seat on the town's Planning Board after the Board of Selectmen voted her to the position at its Tuesday meeting, Aug. 21. Allison will be bringing her economist background with her to her new volunteer position. "The issues the board will be working on are very important in terms of both quality of life and financial viability of the town," said Allison in an interview with Belmont Patch on Wednesday, Aug 22. Allison replaces Andy Rojas who was elected Selectman in April. "What's needed on the board is someone with an economics background," said Ralph Jones after the vote. Allison's elevation…
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Warrant Committee supports a new payment stream to tackle unfunded obligations.
Pick a number. Any number. Just pick a number. That request by Town Treasurer Floyd Carman at the Warrant Committee's weekly meeting Wednesday, May 2, was an invitation for Town Meeting representatives to approve a Special Town Meeting article creating a new policy that each year diverts a small stream of town funds in an attempt to fill a huge debt reservoir. At the end of his appeal, the Warrant Committee – the financial watch dog for the Town Meeting – voted unanimously to support Carman's plan before Town Meeting despite what one selectman recently said any payment is just a "drop-in-the-bucket" in resolving the massive debt obligation facing town taxpayers. Other post-employment benefits – known as OPEB – are town payments other than…
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W. L. Chenery Middle School
95 Washington St, Belmont, MA
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157120
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Thursday, April 12, 2012
But where will it be spent? Added funds to schools or direct it towards town services.
Like a legislative Gabriel, Will Brownsberger once again was the bearer of good news from Beacon Hill to his hometown. The newly-elected state senator came to the Warrant Committee on Wednesday, April 11, to announce that the budget-creating Ways and Means Committee of the Massachusetts House of Representatives had just released its draft budget earlier in the day. And for the second year running, Brownsberger was invited to address the group to reported that the House proposal goes beyond that of Gov. Deval Patrick, providing Belmont an additional $291,006 in state revenue. Brownsberger told the committee that the draft would provide an extra minimum of $40 per student in Chapter 70 education aid or about $153,920 to Belmont's school …
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W. L. Chenery Middle School
95 Washington St, Belmont, MA
/articles/belmont-could-see-extra-291k-in-state-aid
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Thursday, March 29, 2012
Belmont saves $354K this year, $468K in next two years; employees now have $250 deductible.
Calling it a "gift that keeps on giving," Board of Selectmen Chairman Ralph Jones announced last night that the town and union employees have signed a historic agreement Tuesday, March 27, saving the town nearly $1.3 million over the next three years while providing employees with lower health rates but requiring them to accept a new $250 deductible under the new plan. The agreement, announced before the Warrant Committee Wednesday, March 28, at the Chenery Middle School, brought a round of applause from the fiscal watch dog group of Town Meeting at their weekly meeting. The newly-found savings for this year, if all allocated to the school department's funding shortfall, and added to newly-discovered revenue, could reduce the school's …
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W. L. Chenery Middle School
95 Washington St, Belmont, MA
/articles/town-unions-sign-historic-health-pact
157120
/locations/6686545
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Warrant Committee see only a few more increases in revenue before Town Meeting. But a new health care plan for town employee could bring the town $350K this year.
A miscalculation in staff assumptions of a substantial decline in Special Education expenses has resulted in a $200,000 increase in the proposed fiscal 2013 Belmont School Department level-service budget, and bumping up its current deficit by nearly 30 percent to $865,000, according to a School Committee source. In reporting to the Warrant Committee at last night's scheduled meeting, School Committee member Laurie Slap said that "(I)t's not a good week for the schools" saying that a "technical assumption" on Special Education costs made early in the budgeting process now does not appear to be correct. Slap, the School Committee's liaison to the Warrant Committee, said a meeting with the School's Director of Student Services, Ken Kramer, …
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-71.17051
W. L. Chenery Middle School
95 Washington St, Belmont, MA
/articles/schools-deficit-balloons-200k-on-sped-costs
157120
/locations/6639218
Friday, January 27, 2012
The "on spot" figure keeps the school department's deficit around $500,000 for fiscal '13.
Belmont Board of Selectmen Chairman Ralph Jones said he was "expecting level funding" in local aid from the state this budget cycle. And the state delivered, at least in the first estimates of the amount Belmont budget writers can expect from Massachusetts Governor Patrick's budget when it is released in the spring. Earlier this week, the Massachusetts Department of Revenue released its fiscal year 2013 local aid estimates and as the town, school department and Warrant Committee had predicted back in September, state aid is at the same dollar level as last year. In fact, Belmont comes out ahead by just over $8,000. FY '12 Cherry Sheet est. Looking a little deeper into the figures, Belmont saw a $5,813 drop on the education side of the …
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Belmont Town Hall
455 Concord Ave, Belmont, MA
/articles/town-recieves-cheery-cherry-sheet-estimate
157295
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Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Chairwoman Allison says committee will still analyze budgets "line item by line item."
After accepting the preliminary fiscal year 2013 budgets from the school department and town Wednesday, Jan. 11, Warrant Committee Chairwoman Elizabeth Allison told representatives from both groups that their presentations made the committee quite "happy." "It would be fair to say that many members are relieved with what was presented," said Allison after the meeting where the committee – the financial watch dog for the Town Meeting representatives who approve or reject the town budgets in May – and residents saw for the first time the combined $74.2 million level service budget. Allison's enthusiasm came after the schools and town departments revealed that their fiscal 2013 budget shortfalls they were facing were what Board of Selectmen …
Monday, November 28, 2011
No longer seen as set in stone, a proposal to allow allocations to school, town to float a bit.
As long as people could recall, when assembling the annual Belmont town budget, the percentage of total revenue dollars sent to the town or schools – crudely known as "the split" – was like a mark chiseled in stone on a pillar in the harbor; come hell or high water, the number was rock solid. But this year, both sides of town goverment have agreed that the split will now float with the ebbs and flows of the economic tide. A municipal budget, according to members of the Belmont Board of Selectmen and School Committee who met last Wednesday, Nov. 23, is "a living document" that changes with unexpected needs and unknown circumstances. With this new, historic view of the budget, members agreed that’s why they are only assuming for now, as a …
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Belmont Town Hall
455 Concord Ave, Belmont, MA
/articles/selectmen-and-school-committee-set-the-split-for-now
157295
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Friday, October 28, 2011
Belmont Warrant Committee exploring plan design option for municipal employees.
Medical costs for municipal employees and the town are growing so rapidly that officials have been looking to determine how – or if – Belmont can control them. To that end, the Warrant Committee reached out at its Wednesday, Oct. 26 meeting for more information on recent changes in state law that gave municipalities new tools for controlling health-care costs. John Robertson and Kelly McCue of the Massachusetts Municipal Association joined the committee to provide information on Chapter 19, the local option through which communities can enact changes in the health-care features offered to municipal employees. Robertson and McCue also discussed whether it makes sense for the town to join the state’s Group Insurance Commission (GIC) health …
Monday, October 17, 2011
Ninety days in, Warrant Committee's review shows town, schools hitting their targets.
A sailing imagery would best describe the direction of the Belmont town budget: Steady as she goes. In their first presentation of the 2012 fiscal year budget to the Warrant Committee Oct. 12 at the Chenery Middle School, after the first three months, town and school budgets are coming on target without any wild swings in expenses, according to Tom Younger, the town's administrator. After the first quarter, the Belmont School Department has spent $8.2 million – or just under 20 percent – of the $41.6 million it was budgeted in 2012. Over on the town government side, including fire and police budgets, $5.7 million of the $22.4 million has been spent. And that, according to Elizabeth Allison, the chairwoman of the Warrant Committee, is "good…
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W. L. Chenery Middle School
95 Washington St, Belmont, MA
/articles/good-news-from-the-quarter-post-on-town-finances
157120
/locations/5610072
bill dillon
10:52 am on Thursday, August 23, 2012
Wow ! ! Talk about bringing in a heavyweight . . . . . Liz Allison's appointment to the Planning Board is a coup for the Board of Selectmen. Liz was spectacular on the Warrant Committee and she will be sorely missed over there. She leaves some HUGE shoes to fill. Her departure from the Warrant Committee isn't like when Manny Ramirez left the Red Sox . . . .. . . it's akin to when the Red Sox lost… more ›