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Committee hears FY2025 close showing general-fund deficit, staff adds fund-balance detail to dashboard
Summary
Finance staff told the Budget and Finance Committee the FY2025 books were closed Aug. 31 and that the general fund ended in a deficit; staff added fund-balance restrictions and collection-rate metrics to the committee dashboard and said auditors will be asked about an unexplained COVID-era restriction.
Miss Sullivan, the staff member who presented the fiscal status, said the town closed the FY2025 books on schedule and reported a general-fund shortfall. "We did close FY '25 books last week," she said, adding that state law required closing by Aug. 31. She told the committee she had "planned on a 2 to $3,000,000 deficit and ended up being a little bit smaller," but noted the preliminary statement appears to show almost $8,000,000 because approximately $7,000,000 was reclassified to a 313 fund for a Fire Station Four commitment; the remainder is the true deficit.
Miss Sullivan described additions to the BPHAC dashboard intended to make fund balances clearer to members and the public. She said she added explanations distinguishing total fund balance from unassigned fund balance, listed restrictions and commitments, and attempted to tag resolution numbers where possible. One dashboard line labeled "restricted for authorized expenditures" traced to the COVID period but lacked clear supporting resolutions; Miss Sullivan said staff and auditors would review whether to return the amount to unassigned balance or retain it as restricted.
The presentation also highlighted revenue-collection metrics. Miss Sullivan said property-tax collections look strong when viewed over the annual cycle and that utility-billing collections were about 96% for the monthly measure. She added a "debt as percent of assessed value" metric with a 10% threshold to flag burdensome debt, explaining the dashboard uses conditional formatting so members can see risk levels at a glance.
Committee members praised the dashboard's readability and usefulness for community transparency. Speaker 1 and others said the presentation was digestible for elected officials and the public and encouraged continued incremental dashboard development. Miss Sullivan said she would continue adding items monthly and welcomed feedback.
The committee did not take formal action on the FY2025 close; Miss Sullivan said she would consult auditors about the unexplained restriction and report back during audit field work.
