Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Auditor Adjustment topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Audit adjustments, drops in non‑tax revenue blamed for sudden tax-rate spike in Lincoln budget
Summary
Town Administrator Trish Waugh told the Selectboard that missed auditors' adjustments and reductions in non-tax revenue — including a $51,000 current-use reduction — caused an estimated tax-rate spike that required emergency revision of the FY27 budget.
Town Administrator Trish Waugh told the Town of Lincoln Selectboard at a Jan. 22 emergency meeting that the sharp projected increase in the town's municipal tax rate followed accounting and revenue changes identified after the board's Jan. 20 budget approval.
Waugh said the principal drivers were a $250,000 reduction in General Fund non-tax revenue, a $150,733 reduction in Highway Fund non-tax revenue, and a $51,000 drop in current-use revenue tied to a state recalculation. She also reported that auditors' adjustments had not been entered into the accounting system for at least five years, producing roughly a $130,000 negative adjustment to the Highway Fund that had effectively been offset in the Paving Reserve Fund and resulted in a combined non-tax revenue loss of about $101,783 for FY27.
Those accounting details, Waugh told the board, explain why the originally approved budgets would have produced a much larger tax-rate increase than anticipated and prompted staff to present options to lower the FY27 impact.
