Finance Committee
Meetings are scheduled as necessary
No meetings currently scheduled.
Members
5 of 5 seats. 3 years each seat.
- Charles J. Readinger. June, 2025.
- Matt Popoli. June, 2025.
- James Burnham. June, 2026.
- Terri Mitchell. June, 2027.
- Todd Dubreuil, Chairman. June, 2027.
FINANCE COMMITTEE ROLE & RESPONSIBILITIES
“The Finance Committee is the official fiscal watchdog for a town. Because it is difficult for all taxpayers to be completely informed about every aspect of a town’s finances, finance committees were established as a representative group of taxpayers responsible for conducting a thorough review of municipal finance questions on behalf of all citizens. “
Massachusetts Finance Committee Handbook (emphasis added)
“The finance committee shall meet and investigate the cost of maintenance and expenditures of the Town, and recommend in detail the amounts to be appropriated for each department for the ensuing year. They shall also consider all articles in the Town warrants requiring the appropriation of money and shall make written report to the meetings considering such articles.”
Shelburne Town Bylaws – Article 2, Section 4 (emphasis added)
Primary duties of the Finance Committee:
- To advise and make recommendations to town meeting on the budget and other areas of finance.
- With statutory authority, may make transfers from the town’s reserve fund (a contingency fund usually created as part of the annual budget appropriations) to departmental budgets for extraordinary or unforeseen occurrences.
- May approve, in cooperation with the selectboard, some budget transfers during the last two months of the fiscal year and the first 15 days of the next year in order to close out the town’s financial records.
Composition & Term of Office
The moderator at each annual town meeting shall appoint the necessary number of members to the Finance Committee. In the first year the Town adopts this By-Law, the Moderator shall appoint two (2) members for three (3) years, two (2) members for two (2) years and one (1) member for one (1) year and each year thereafter at subsequent Town Meeting, the Moderator shall appoint members to fill the expiring term(s) for three (3) years.
Shelburne Town By-Laws
TERMS & DEFINITIONS
- BUDGET A plan of financial operation including an estimate of proposed revenues and expenditures for a given period of time.
- CHERRY SHEET 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 Vote on at town meeting. Purpose: to allow exclusion, from the levy limit, of debt service payments for a particular capital project. If approved, the amount of 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, certified by the Department of Revenues director of accounts, as available for appropriation. Includes: 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 Annual estimates of local receipts are shown on the tax recapitulation sheet. These are: locally generated revenues other than real and personal property taxes, excluding enterprise revenue funds. Examples: motor vehicle excise, investment income, hotel/motel tax, fees rentals & charges.
- OPERATING BUDGET The plan of proposed expenditures for personnel, supplies, and other expenses for the coming fiscal year.
- OVERRIDE A vote at Town Meeting 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% of the prior year’s 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.
Previous meetings:
- Mon, Sep 30, 2024 at 05:30 PM -- Shelburne Fire Station, 18 Little Mohawk Road
- Mon, Aug 5, 2024 at 05:30 PM -- Shelburne Fire Station, 18 Little Mohawk Road
- Mon, May 6, 2024 at 05:30 PM -- Shelburne Fire Station, 18 Little Mohawk Road
- Mon, Apr 29, 2024 at 05:30 PM -- Shelburne Fire Station, 18 Little Mohawk Road
- Thu, Mar 28, 2024 at 05:30 PM -- Shelburne Fire Station, 18 Little Mohawk Road
- Mon, Mar 25, 2024 at 05:30 PM -- Shelburne Fire Station, 18 Little Mohawk Road
- Mon, Mar 11, 2024 at 05:30 PM -- Shelburne Fire Station, 18 Little Mohawk Road
- Mon, Mar 4, 2024 at 05:30 PM -- Shelburne Fire Station, 18 Little Mohawk Road
- Mon, Feb 26, 2024 at 05:30 PM -- Shelburne Fire Station, 18 Little Mohawk Road
- Mon, Feb 12, 2024 at 05:30 PM -- Shelburne Fire Station, 18 Little Mohawk Road
- Show 50 More...
Finance Committee Meetings
Finance Committee Files
- Report of the Shelburne Finance Committee FY24 1 2.docx
- FinCom 2024-03-04 Agenda.docx
- Finance Committee Budget Report for FY23 1.docx
- 2023 Budget Overview.xlsx
- 2022 Budget Overview.xlsx
- 2021 Budget Overview.xlsx
- 2020 Budget Overview.xlsx
- 2019 Budget Overview.xlsx
- 2018 Budget Overview.xls
- 2017 Budget Overview.xls
- 2016 Budget Overview.xls
- 2015 Budget Overview.xls
- 2014 Budget Overview.xls
- 2013 Budget Overview.xls
- 2012 Budget Overview.xls
- 2011 Budget Overview.xls