Finance Committee

The Finance Committee is comprised of (7) seven members, appointed by the Board of Selectmen. The Selectmen shall appoint members to three-year terms on a staggered basis. 

Note: The term each member serves on this Committee is staggered, so that not all members need to be reappointed in a given year.

Responsibility of the Finance Committee

The Finance Committee’s prime responsibility is to make recommendations on all financial matters, including the budget, to town meeting. The committee has oversight responsibility for all municipal financial matters, as well as other statutory authority granted to them by the Towns bylaws.

Key Definitons Used By The Finance Committee

  • Budget: A plan of financial operation embodying an estimate of proposed revenues and expenditures for a given period and the proposed means of financing them.
  • Cherry Sheet: The Cherry Sheet is the official notification from the Commissioner of Revenue of the next fiscal year’s state aid and assessments to communities and regional school districts.
  • Debt Exclusion: This is a vote by a municipality at an election to exclude debt service payments for a particular capital project from the levy limit. The amount necessary to cover the annual debt service is added to the levy limit for the life of the debt only.
  • Free Cash: Funds remaining from the operations of the previous fiscal year which are certified by the Department of Revenues director of accounts, as available for appropriation. Remaining funds include unexpended free cash from the previous year, receipts in excess of estimates shown on the tax recapitulation sheet and unspent amounts in budget line-items.
  • Local Receipts: Locally generated revenues other than real and personal property taxes and excluding enterprise revenue funds. Examples include motor vehicle excise, investment income, hotel/motel tax, fees rentals and charges. Annual estimates of local receipts are shown on the tax recapitulation sheet.
  • Operating Budget: The plan of proposed expenditures for personnel, supplies, and other expenses for the coming fiscal year.
  • Override: A vote by a community at an election to permanently increase the levy limit. An override vote may increase the levy limit to no higher than the levy ceiling.
  • Reserve Fund: An amount set aside annually within the budget of a town (not to exceed 5% of the tax levy for the preceding year), to provide a funding source for “extraordinary and unforeseen” expenditures.
  • Stabilization Fund: An account from which funds may be appropriated for any lawful purpose. Towns may appropriate into the fund in any year an amount not to exceed 10 per cent of the prior years tax levy, or a larger amount with the approval of the emergency finance board. A two-thirds vote of the town meeting is required to appropriate money from the stabilization account.

Resource: Finance Committee Handbook – Assoc. of Town Finance Committees, October 2000

Finance Committee Site Last Updated 1/2018

Staff Contacts

Committee Members

Name Title
Theodore Sargent Member (June 2022)
Gilbert Alegi Chairman (June 2024)
Duane Wheeler Member (June 2024)
Linda DeMello Member (June 2023)
David LaMarco Member (June 2024)
Daniel McNally Member (June 2023)
Dr. Susan P. Prewandowski Member (June 2025)