I. Council Action Requested.
Title
To approve a municipal services budget for fiscal year 2014-2015.
Body
II. Basis for Council Action.
Council approval of this item is required because;
- according to Article II, Section 3(G) of the Charter, the Town Council shall have the power to "approve an annual budget and recommend same to the Town Meeting, subject to the provisions of this Charter, and
- according to Article V, Section 4 of the Charter, "[t]he proposed budget prepared by the Manager shall be reviewed by the Council which shall approve the budget with or without amendments. The complete Town budget as approved by the Council shall be printed and distributed and the Council shall fix the time and place for holding a public hearing on the budget, and shall give a public notice of such hearing as provided in this Charter. The Council shall then review the budget and recommend it with or without change to the annual Town Meeting, no later than thirty (30) days prior to the beginning of the new fiscal year.
III. Issue Summary.
For the vote on the budget Tuesday night, once the main motion has been made to place the manager's proposed municipal services budget on the floor the Chairman will entertain motions to amend the main budget motion (with appropriate opportunity for public input) generally in the following order:
· The amendments which comprise the finance committee's recommendation, combined in a single motion,
· Revenue measures (proposals that would increase or decrease estimated revenues - because property tax revenues are already at the limit without requiring an override by state law, such proposals would likely deal only with non-property tax revenues),
· Appropriations measures (proposals that would increase or decrease proposed appropriations), and
· Either revenue or appropriations measures to arrive at a balanced budget.
For the sake of clarity, amendments to amendments should be avoided where possible, as should amendments by substitution. Since there is no limit to the number of amendments that can be made on the main motion, acting on individual revenue or appropriation measures as single amendments will help reduce the possibility of mistakes in the final product.
Having the entire budget open at once allows a more open consideration of the budget, and offers the ability to revisit an earlier amendment if it is affected by a later one without having to go through the exercise of reconsideration.