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FAAC reviews preliminary budget numbers and warns of revenue pressure from tax changes
Summary
Staff presented preliminary TRIM numbers showing roughly $5.0M in general fund revenue and $3.4M in expenditures and warned that the loss of surtax revenue and forthcoming homestead-exemption shifts could reduce future revenue by an estimated $400,000 in year one; committee discussed keeping the millage rate steady and raising road/drainage assessments.
Staff from the town's finance team presented preliminary budget and TRIM-related figures and walked the Finance, Audit and Advisory Committee through trade-offs for the 2027 budget.
Staff said the general fund currently shows about $5 million in revenues against roughly $3.4 million in expenditures, but cautioned that structural changes could reduce available funding in coming years. "About 73% of your entire budget is labor and transfers out," a staff presenter said, noting limits on flexibility. Staff also said the town has lost local surtax revenue recently and that changes to homestead exemptions could reduce town revenues by roughly $400,000 in year one and larger amounts in subsequent years.
Given that constraint, staff proposed keeping the preliminary millage rate for TRIM purposes at the current level (3.2564) while adjusting the road-and-drainage assessment to better cover that fund'fs costs. Committee members asked for more granular "budget-to-actual" reports, linked to GL line items and vendor-level spending, so they can track whether a particular department or line item is driving variances.
Members asked staff for the detailed spreadsheets underlying the Power BI presentation and asked for year-to-date actuals (October to present) to compare last year to this year. Staff said Power BI would be refreshed to May and that the detailed Excel files for all line items could be provided to the committee for review. Committee members suggested a workshop with council or an additional meeting focused on the audit and budget before formal hearings.
Staff warned that the far bigger financial levers the town can control are limited: the millage rate, the road-and-drainage assessment and the solid-waste assessment. "Those are the only numbers we get to control on the revenue side," the presenter said.
Next procedural steps: staff will send detailed Excel backup and refreshed Power BI exports; council will set the preliminary TRIM at its next meeting and the first public budget hearings are expected after Labor Day, with final adoption in September.
