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Select Board asks for tanker lease payment from free cash; residents question budgeting practice
Summary
Town Meeting approved a $97,034 appropriation for the second year of a fire department tanker lease, paid from free cash; residents questioned use of free cash for operating needs and whether the expense should have been in the adopted budget.
Town Meeting approved $97,034 to pay for the second year of a fire department tanker lease, funding the payment from free cash. The item touched off a debate about whether free cash is an appropriate source for what some residents described as an operating cost.
Opponents said the lease had been included in prior budgets and that asking free‑cash funding now effectively asks taxpayers to pay twice. "This needs to come from the budget because we've already paid for this," resident Robert May said during discussion. He urged that the lease payment should be handled within the department budget rather than by a free‑cash transfer.
Select Board members and other officials explained the town's budgeting process and the reason the tanker lease wound up in free cash. "Free cash is the result of an end of year process that the accountant goes through... At the end of the year... all of that unexpended money from all of the departments goes through the process and the state says... you can retain x amount of dollars known as free cash," Select Board member Mike Curry said in reply to questions about funding. Officials added that capital and one‑time items are often funded from free cash, and argued the tanker payment is appropriately handled as such.
After discussion the appropriation passed; officials said the levy and operating budgets will continue to be reviewed for next fiscal years to avoid similar timing questions.
