Finance Committee Recommendations To Town Meeting
During the David's time on the Finance Committee he has opposed several wasteful projects, advocated for equitable wages, advocated to improve our infrastructure, and prevented large tax breaks to wall street. On this post you will find the warrant articles that that were published in the annul and special town meeting's warrants mailed to all the residents.
2025 Article 29 Dissent
The proponents of this article were previously awarded about $120,000 in Community Preservation Funding at the 2020 Town meeting, and the proponents returned the funding back the Community Preservation Fund. The original design was to build the pickleball court on the site of the old tennis court behind the Tavern. Additional applications for funding this project were never submitted back to Community Preservation. The current project is for six courts and is estimated to cost $673,000 and will be funded by the town’s free cash reserve. The cost of the current project spends too much on grading a 20-foot slope. There are other flat locations in town that could be used to provide a substantial saving for the town’s free cash reserve. Alternatively, this project could cost significantly less in the current location with just 3 courts rather than 6 courts, since there wouldn’t be a significant grading of the land. Currently the town has a large box at the high school that contains pickleball equipment and residents are already using those courts for pickleball. Please vote no on this article.
2025 Article 36 – Motion 2 Dissent
The budget for the Town Clerk is supported, however the budget for the Board of Assessors, Board of Health and Select Board is not supported. In 2022 the Finance Committee formed a sub-committee to review the part-time elected official compensation, and the results and recommendations of this sub-committee were presented to the Select Board in 2023. The Finance sub-committee proposed two options to the board for FY 25 and they included either eliminating all compensation for part-time elected officials or revising compensation to be inclusive to all part-time elected officials. The Finance sub-committee also recommended eliminating benefit eligibility for part-time elected officials for only the Select Board. The results of this presentation were never implemented, and the members of the School Committee, Library Board of Trustee and Planning Board are still not being compensated for their great service to the town.
Historically, the Town Clerk and Part-Time Elected officials were two separate motions, but for some uncompelling reason they were combined into one motion for FY26. A member of the Finance Committee made a motion to remove all part-time elected officials’ compensation form the FY26 budget, but that member did not receive any support on that motion, even from the other members that supported the Select Board presentation in 2023
Please vote to eliminate the 3 part-time elected officials that consist of the Board of Assessors, Board of Health, and Select Board salary appropriations. This will remove economic inequalities for all part-time elected officials, and the Select Board can build a equitable compensation plan for all part-time elected officials in the future.
2024 Article 20 Dissent
Establish 1860 Wash. St. Redevelopment Stabilization Fund - $1,000,000 from Free Cash.
The town already has a Capital Stabilization account that exists to provide the town with the opportunity to set aside funds for specific uses to offset future debt projects. With the Galvin Middle School (GMS) project imminent, it would be more appropriate to move the $1,000,000 from Free Cash to the Capital Stabilization Account (#801). The GMS project is well into the planning and design phase and will be up for a vote this fall. The use or cost for the Saint Gerard’s location has yet to be determined. These funds should be added to the Capital Stabilization Account (#801) to help minimize the potential tax increases associated with the GMS project when the project comes up for vote this fall.
2024 Article 28 Dissent
Appropriations to Fund Museum Improvements at the Paul Revere Heritage Site - $2,000,000 DIF
The Revere and Sons Heritage Trust Corporation (RSHTC) presented a PowerPoint to the Finance Committee showing the projected cost would be approximately $6,000,000 to design and build the museum. RSHTC did not provide official estimates and the projected cost may not even factor in inflation and contingences over the next several years to complete the project. The RSHTC has access to approximately $1,500,000 in grants and donations, it also has access to an additional $300,000 from the Reservoir Pond Mitigation Fund. With these funds the museum still faces a $2,200,000 short fall in funds to complete the project and this projection does not include any inflationary and contingency costs while exhausting all available mitigation funds. RSHTC will not be putting forward additional DIF articles in the future, so the funding gap is uncertain and will require additional Debt Capital funding which will have further impacts on residents’ taxes. The RSHTC does collect rents from the Norther Spy, but it will not be enough funds to cover the shortfall in funding.
In addition to funding issues there is a lack of parking for patrons of the museum. Norther Spy patrons will be competing with museum patrons for parking, especially on a rainy day. RSHTC officials have purposed additional parking options at the Canton Junction MBTA station (¾ of a mile away) and 27 Neponset St (about ½ mile away) – This is too far to expect children to walk from the parking lot to the museum in New England weather.
The 2015 Special Town Meeting Article 3 (Article 3) - VOTE TO CREATE A DISTRICT IMPROVEMENT FINANCING (DIF) PROGRAM never identified a museum as a specific development. Article 3 did permit the development of the Revere Barn and Rolling Mill as public facilities, and this objective was completed. The Town now has two beautiful public facility assets. DIF funds would be more appropriately used to improve the infrastructure in the district. With the update to the MBTA Communities Overlay Map in the DIF district the town will incur additional infrastructure
improvements, and these DIF funds could be used to invest in infrastructure improvements for the district.
The town or a resident can put forth a new article at a subsequent town meeting that would appropriate these funds for other uses within the district. Rejecting this article will not preclude the town or schools from their portion of funds.
2023 STM Article 6 to support the police audit.
This is a resident sponsored article which is sponsored by Kathleen Howley and 306 other Canton citizens. The article as written details 3 motions, the motions are part of the Article and not actual motions. The motion that will be considered in Article 6 will be the Finance Committee motion listed in this Article.
The Finance Committee unanimously voted 8-0-0 to recommend the Finance Committee motion to the 2023 Special Town Meeting. The Article as written was not compliant with procurement law, so adjustments were made for compliance. The Finance Committee motion includes an independent audit of the Police Department which includes an administrative review of policies and procedures. The formation of a committee to oversee the procurement was recommended to preserve the integrity of the independent Auditor selection process. The Finance Committee recommended that MGL Chapter 30B, Section 6 be used as the procurement process. This procurement process will select a more qualified Auditor over the lowest bid. All bids will be sealed, and the newly formed committee appointed by the Moderator will review the bids to finalize the selection process. $200,000 was the amount suggested by the Article sponsor to be appropriated from the general fund for the purpose of conducting the audit.
A member of the Select Board detailed how the Town Administrator has begun the search process for a national audit firm to conduct the audit of the police department. The Select Board member offered to table their proposal to allow town meeting voters to consider Article 6. There are reasonable concerns and perceived conflicts of interest with the Select Board and the Town Administrator choosing the auditor, so this is why an independent committee was recommended for the procurement process. If this Article is opposed at Special Town Meeting, the Select Board and Town Administrator will most likely oversee and proceed with their purposed audit of the police department.
The Finance Committee struggled to find a way to audit the Select Board that was proposed in the resident sponsored article, so no action was taken on an audit of the Select Board at this time. This does not mean the Select Board audit is precluded, as a motion could be proposed by a Canton resident on town meeting floor. The Finance Committee deliberated in length about considering a potential motion for government modernization, but it was deemed that was out of the scope of the resident sponsored article. A government modernization Article may be presented at Annual Town Meeting in the Spring.
Canton residents and members of the Finance Committee expressed that conducting the vote with voter cards will create fear or threats amongst residents for voting their positions. The Finance Committee suggested the vote be conducted via paper ballot. The Town By-Law referring to the use of paper ballots gives this authority to the Town Moderator. The Finance Committee suggested the Town Moderator contact the Town Clerk to see if paper ballots can be prepared in advance of the Special Town Meeting for Articles 4,5,6 and 8.
2023 Article 27 Dissent
With the Commonwealth banning the sale of gas-powered cars by 2035, this will help to prevent the majority of greenhouse gas emissions within Canton. OPEC will continue to pump oil and our roads will continue to be manufactured with oil, so there will be little to no chance that the Town on Canton will help to mitigate Green House Gas (GHG) emissions going forward.
While this Article does not have a specific cost, there will be substantial financial obligations in the future regarding, feasibility studies, legal and consulting fees, reporting fees, building engineering design fees, construction fees and other unforeseen fees.
Additional factors weighed in opposition to Article 27:
1. It will be impossible for this proposed Article to prepare a public report containing the delta of GHG emissions to historic levels to current since Canton has not historically tracked GHG. This article will have large consultant fee charges that will take away from other vital town resources.
2. Our current Master Plan outlines many climate change initiatives which have not yet been implemented, and this Article will create needless redundancies throughout the town.
3. Other objectives to mitigate GHG may include converting municipal buildings to LEED buildings, which is something the town cannot afford at this time. We have many essential capital projects in the pipeline such as a plan to rebuild the Galvin Middle School, the build out of the Revere and Son Corporation Museum, adding filtration to the town water system to mitigate PFAS, and the rebuild and design of Saint Gerrard’s to name a few.
In conclusion, the Town’s resources could be put to use in a more effective way that will create meaningful progress to achieving current Master Plan initiatives.
2021 STM Article 2 Dissent
As a fiscal watchdog for the Town of Canton, I could not make a recommendation regarding Article 2 at the time of the Finance Committee vote. The Town did not provide any projected tax increases to Canton residents, the appraisal of the property was not ready, and no monetary value was appropriated to Article 2. Detailed information was lacking if the Archdiocese of Boston is willing to have Saint Gerard’s acquired by eminent domain. Therefore, with these key facts missing, I could not support the article.
2021 Article 28 Dissent
The Special Tax Agreement (STA) was opposed by a member of the Finance Committee because Wall Street does not need a tax break of $323,845 from the Town of Canton on a building they already own. In return the town gets two $1,000 scholarships over 3 years and a onetime donation to the Senior Center of $5,000. These two concessions from Emergent Biosolutions (Owner) have a stipulation in the agreement that they can be withdrawn if they do not fit their corporate policy – A stipulation that should never be in this agreement. At the completion of the project the building will have a fair market valued near $72,900,000 and will only be assessed at $13,678,100, so therefore the tax break will be substantially greater than $323,845. It should be noted the dissenter believes the Owner should only have the STA or the cap on the accessed value, but not both. The Owner will potentially save millions of dollars in Canton’s tax dollars over the next 30 years with the 10% cap on the accessed value. The town could really use the short term tax revenue in this economic environment while the thriving Owner could benefit from the assessed valued savings in the future. The dissent supports the economic development in Canton, but the deal needs to be equitable for our town. This is a fantastic deal for the Owner but a poor deal for the Town of Canton.