Special Town Meeting • 11.17.11 • 7:30pm • Middle School
Elevator Version
~ Why Should I Care?
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Details
~ Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
1) What is the difference between Article 3 and Article 4?
Article 3 was put together by town residents concerned about large surpluses of cash held by the
town, while there continues to be an increase in taxes. Article 4 was put together by the Board of
Selectmen (BOS) after Article 3 had been submitted, presumably to control the amount of tax relief.
2) What is the difference in tax relief between the two articles?
The petitioners' (Article 3) asks for a minimum of $4 million, while the BOS' (Article 4) asks for $1 million.
3) How much excess money do we have?
We have $10.3 million in Free Cash and about $20 million in other dedicated accounts accounts, however, not all of this is surplus. See Question 4.
4) Isn't it good to maintain some reserves?
DOR recommends Free Cash levels of 3%-5%, which for Wayland would be $2M to $3.5M.
FinCom's guidelines call for free cash levels of 5%-10%, which for Wayland would be $3.4M to $6.8M.
Taking the midpoint of each of these 2 guidelines, the Free Cash reserve for Wayland would be between $2.75M to $5.15M...not $10.3M.
Based on the midpoints of these two guidelines, there is between $5.15M and $7.5M of surplus Free Cash.
5) Why does FinCom support the BOS article?
Some members of FinCom have stated that it would be more fiscally responsible to apply $1 million to tax relief now and apply the rest in subsequent years.
It's also worth noting that:
a. The FinCom ALWAYS supports the BOS because the BOS appoints the FinCom.
b. The FinCom supports the BOS article because the article was originally suggested by the FinCom.
6) What's wrong with the BOS' article?
The town is not a bank and should not be holding our money. They have collected too much revenue from us. If you overpaid your landscaper and he told you he would apply a portion of your overpayment to next year's landscaping, and the year after that, while you continued making payments each year along the way, would you find that an acceptable arrangement? This is what FinCom and the BOS want us to do under their article.
More FAQs coming soon.
PLEASE SUPPORT ARTICLE 3 @ SPECIAL TOWN MEETING (November 17TH, 7:30PM, Wayland Middle School)