FINAL VERSION AS
AMENDED AND APPROVED ON ___________. Attest: _________
Town of Charlotte
Board of Selectmen
Minutes
Monday, January 20, 2003
7:00 PM, Charlotte Town Hall
Eleanor Russell
Debbie Ramsdell
OTHERS: Kristin
McClary
John Hammer
Ed Amidon
Liz Robair
Stephen C. Brooks
Justine Dee
Robert Mack
Sylvia Sprigg
Amie Whitcomb
Peter Coleman
Shanley Hinge
Susan Leonard
Jocelyn Bolick (clerk)
The meeting was
called to order at 7:05 pm.
The items on the
agenda were as follows;
Adjustments to agenda
/ Approve minutes of January 13th
/ Public Discussion / Charlotte Children’s Center Request for Article to Waive
Property Taxes / Possible Resolution Calling for Legislature to Increase Education
Fund -Payments to School Districts to Reduce Property Taxes / Approve General
Language for Nordic Farm Path Easement / Possible Selectboard Letter Regarding
County Tax Increase of 26% ($6900) / Discussion of Town’s Common Level of
Appraisal and the Effect on the Tax Rate and Discussion of Accelerated
Appraisal Schedule / Finalize Proposed Budget / Appoint Emergency Management
Coordinator / Selectboard updates / Sign Bills and Warrants
Underpass discussion. Liz Robair led a discussion on applying salt to roads in certain areas. A traffic accident occurred last week involving a town snow plow and a Nissan SUV (the car is totaled). There was a thin film of black ice covered by a new dusting of snow. Had there been an application of salt on the road prior to the snowfall, perhaps the accident could have been avoided. Pictures were presented of the vehicles after the accident. We need to be conscious of the environmental impact of sand and salt, but also need to be concerned with citizen safety. Perhaps a list can be put together to help Junior Lewis figure out which areas need to be highly maintained.
Charlotte Children’s Center Request for Article to Waive
Property Taxes
Shanley Hinge spoke about the Charlotte Children’s Center request for a property tax waiver. Charlotte Children’s Center is a high quality daycare for working families, but it’s hard to keep it affordable while providing decent wages for the caregivers. They feel elementary school children get a fair amount of public support, but pre-school children do not. The total budget of the Children’s Center is $360,000, with about 75-80% going toward the teachers salary. Approximately $5200 is going toward paying property taxes. The selectboard would like to see a discussion in front of town meeting. They will check to see if this decision can be made through an Australian ballot on town meeting day. Since the selectboard has already set precedent with another organization, the Children’s Center needs to get a petition with 130 signatures by January 23rd, and then the selectboard can decide whether to put it on the ballot.
Possible Resolution Calling for Legislature to Increase
Education Fund
Payments to School Districts to Reduce Property Taxes
A
resolution came in the Vermont Cities and Towns weekly legislative report. They are encouraging towns to pass this
resolution and pass it on to your legislators.
There is more money going
into the education fund than is being allocated to the towns, so the fund is
getting bigger and bigger. When the
legislature sees the growing pot of money, they may feel that they do not need
to fund the education fund out of the general fund. The resolution is asking towns throughout the state to pass this
resolution calling for the Legislature to Increase the Education Fund payments
to towns or reduce the statewide property tax.
The amount projected to be paid to schools in block grants in 2004 will
shrink by $2,000,000 while total property taxes sent to the state by cities and
towns will grow by $63,500,000.
Motion
by Eleanor Russell, seconded by Debbie Ramsdell.
“To move to sign the resolution
to increase the education fund payments to towns or reduce property taxes”
Vote: all in favor.
Discussion
led by Ed Amidon and Peter Coleman concerning Act 60 as a flawed bill that
needs to be fixed. Part of the
equation of Act 60 is how much comes back to the citizens of Charlotte in
property tax rebates. Since property
taxes are income-sensitized, the current level of assessment does not really
make a difference for more than 60% of the people in town since they get the
money back in property tax rebates.
Approximately 45% of the people in town are applying for a rebate - the
question is why are the other people that are eligible not applying for the
rebate?
The
site visit on Friday, January 17th, was cancelled due to the
inclement weather. The 30 day clock is
expiring on the 22nd or 23rd, so Charles Russell talked
to Clark Hinsdale, Jr., to nail down the language for that path for the
VHCV. The language concerns the eastern
border of the property except for a corner of the property that is quite
steep. It may happen on the 21st
or 22nd, or perhaps the trail will traverse the slope at that corner
at an easier grade.
Possible Selectboard Letter Regarding County Tax Increase of
26% ($6900)
The selectboard has copies of letters sent by several towns to protest the increase in the county tax. The Shelburne selectboard wrote a letter to Judges Rutkowski and Crowley to dissuade the legislature against such a large tax increase. The towns are legislatively obligated to go along with the county tax increase. The county courthouse building requires major repairs; this results in the $6900 increase in taxes for one year. The selectboard decided they need more information, so it’s a little premature to have this on the agenda.
Discussion of Town’s Common Level of Appraisal and the
Effect on the Tax Rate and Discussion of Accelerated Appraisal Schedule
Eleanor Russell and Charles Russell met with the town appraiser to discuss re-appraising the town next year. He stated that Charlotte was at the last year of a 5 year cycle, so the grand list will be updated next year anyway by the time the tax rate is set. He did recommend going to a re-appraisal every 2 years instead of every 5 years, since the closer you are to your real value, the better off you will be. This will increase the cost of listers to the town by approximately $13,000-$14,000 per year. Discussion ensued concerning town and state appraisers. Ed Amidon said that these problems are inherent with the state-wide property tax. He suggested writing your legislators to persuade them to get rid of the state-wide property tax. It’s a constant attempt to make it fair and equalized for everyone, yet every attempt to fix it makes it less fair for yet another group of people. Perhaps if they get rid of a state-wide property tax, it could go back to a local property tax, plus the general fund, maybe a lottery, who knows? A question was raised – how many towns are giving, and how many are receiving? Ed said the number of receiving towns keeps going down – it’s at 40, according to Stephen Brooks. Another piece of the puzzle – how much money comes back in rebates to people in the town? Charlotte has approximately 45% getting a rebate check. But there should be more than that here, not sure why the people are not applying for it. Do people not want to be bothered, or do they consider it a handout and are offended by it, or is the rebate so small that it’s not worth the bother?
Finalize Proposed Budget
Justine Dee, who serves on the Howard Center board, put in an appeal for a $100 increase to the charitable donation to the Howard Center. They supported 72 different clients from Charlotte through their organization over the past year (23 of them were substance abuse clients). The previous year had 67 clients from Charlotte. $800 per year over 72 clients is about $11/person. An increase of $100 will increase it to approximately $12/person. Since the state budget is being cut, they feel at risk that their services will need to be cut. They would like to get salaries in line; currently the wages are 27% below the state employee wage. As for the 23 substance abuse clients – their services can include services for an overdose attempt, suicide attempt, etc. Discussion ensued on an increase to the towns charitable donation for the Howard Center. The selectboard agreed to increase the donation to $900.
Revenues: The Thompson’s Point Rent has been increased from $345,000 to $350,000. The letter for the Highway state aid came in, it’s set at $182,676, and the highway grant at $10,000. The cost of the lister phone number is down $500/year since the DSL line has gone in, but the fax line has gone up $500/year. The equipment line item has been zeroed out. The total for town Hall has been changed to $30,360. The computer service budget number changed, as well as the number for the fax line for town hall. Employee benefits have increased due to re-adjusted salaries.
Beach maintenance has gone down from $3500 to $500. The extra $3000 could come out of the recreation fund to fix the roof. Members of the recreation committee did not agree, they felt the recreation fund should be for capital spending, not maintenance. More discussion is needed to finalize this portion of the budget. Robert Mack felt that this is truly a maintenance expenditure, not capital, and the recreation fund must be used for capital funding.
Discussion: Community recreation line item for $5500 under Recreation. The selectboard is leaning towards taking the money out of the school budget and put it into the town budget. This would save the town $3000 up front and give the town a better idea of where the money is going. Marie Sackett (the intramural program co-ordinator) can continue running the program if she wishes. If the responsibility for the intramural program is being transferred away from the school and to the town, then we need to have this point clarified. This would allow private school children to play on intramural teams. We need to have clearly defined who will take responsibility of the intramural program.
Lewis Creek has been moved out of Conservation and into Donations.
Fire and Rescue Budget. Meeting on Wednesday with BankNorth to hash out the capital fund. That way, the fire and rescue budget will be clearer. Stephen Brooks feels the townspeople don’t have a good picture of what’s going on – need to see income items, also see how the capital fund is being used. How do the taxpayers get to understand this budget?
The selectboard has until next week to decide whether to add the new pumper to the budget.
Robert Mack wanted to know the grand list number. 390 million is the listers grand list; it was estimated at 387 million.
Discussion to rename “Miscellaneous” line item in budget to “Unanticipated Expenses”.
Action Items for next week:
1. What do they anticipate upping the beach fees to?
2. Fill out the comments on the sheet titled “Increases over $500”.
3. Fire and Rescue – invite them to the meeting next Monday to talk about capital funding, talk about the presentation of their budget, talk about what they are putting in the town report.
4. Rename “community recreation” to “intramural sports”.
5. Solve Lewis Creek line item.
Appoint Emergency Management Coordinator
J.P.
Bettencourt wants to apply for grants to cover equipment expenses but he needs
to be officially named the emergency management co-ordinator. However, he was named that last summer.
Selectboard updates
Sign Bills and Warrants
Sign
GMP petition to replace poles and guys in right of way on Charlotte/Hinesburg
Road, Plan # A0002211106. Also poles
and guys on Museum Road, Plan #
A0002211107.
Motion made by Eleanor Russell, seconded by Debbie Ramsdell:
Vote:
all in favor.
Motion
made by Eleanor Russell, seconded by Debbie Ramsdell:
“To adjourn as the selectboard
and reconvene as the liquor board”
Vote:
all in favor.
Motion
made by Eleanor Russell, seconded by Jennifer Cole:
Vote: all in favor.
Meeting
next Monday, January 27th, at 7 PM.
Meeting adjourned at 10:22 PM.