HomeMy Public PortalAbout20091123 - Board of Assessors - Meeting MinutesRECEIVED
Town of Hopkinton TOWN OF HOPKINTON
Board of Assessors l8lI~ DEC -q P f2: 42
Minutes of Emergency Meeting ofNovember 23,2009 TOWN CLERK'S OFFICE
An emergency meeting of the Board ofAssessors was held on November 23, 2009 in
Room 211 at the Town Hall to consider a request to increase the amount of the tax
overlay on the recapitulation sheet for FY 2010. The meeting was called at the request of
the Town Manager. A notice ofmeeting was posted on November 20,2009.
The meeting commenced at 8:30 a.m. In personal attendance were John Duffy and John
Palmer, a majority of the members of the Board. Also in attendance were Robert
Bushway, Principal Assessor; Maureen Dwinnell, Treasurer & Collector; Ronald
Eldridge, Member of Appropriation Committee; Norman Khumalo, Town Manager;
Heidi Kriger, Finance Director; and Matthew Zettek, Selectman. John Duffy presided
and John Palmer kept the minutes.
Dr. Duffy opened the meeting with a statement that the emergency meeting was
requested by Town officials for the purpose ofreceiving time-sensitive information from
them regarding the question of whether to increase the overlay account for FY 2010 as a
contingency should there be a further reduction in state aid.
Attendees Dwinnell, Eldridge, Khumalo, Kriger, and Zettek, collectively "the
Proponents", urged the Board to increase the amount ofthe FY 2010 overlay by
approximately $113,000 or some other amount to offset a possible reduction in state aid
should certain state legislation be enacted. The Proponents argued, alternatively, that
state aid definitely will be reduced, that the Assessors had previously agreed to take this
action, that departmental budgets could be adversely impacted by failure to do so, that
doing so would be consistent with the Town Meeting desire to deliver services, that doing
so would minimize the need to raise taxes in FY 2011, that other towns follow this
practice, and that the Department of Revenue knows of this practice and impliedly
consents to it.
Mr. Palmer asked whether it made sense to defer completion ofthe recapitulation sheet
for several months to provide time to accommodate the possible future reduction to the
amount of state aid for FY 2010. The Proponents expressed firm opposition to such a
course of action.
Mr. Palmer stated four points that he considered relevant to the matter. They were the
purposes for an overlay, as stated in the Municipal Finance Manual, do not encompass
possible state aid reductions, the speculative nature of future legislative action,
intervening events could alter the amount of overlay required and could limit or preclude
an anticipated future declaration ofoverlay surplus, and the precedent that would be set
for the future should the Proponents' request be granted.
The Board took no action concerning the amount of the overlay that it had previously
voted to include in the recapitulation sheet.
The meeting adjourned at 9:00 a.m.
JectfullYSUb~'d,
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I L. Palmer, 1erk