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Date: 4/11/2023
AMHERST – Over the course of three meetings on April 3, the Amherst Town Council approved the debt exclusion order for the town’s new elementary school building project.
Background
The proposal for the new elementary school building would mean replacing the Fort River and Wildwood Elementary schools, combining the student population to one location. The building is anticipated to be a net-zero carbon emissions building by running on all-electric power while also providing financially and environmentally friendly heating, cooling and ventilation systems. Along with the environmentally friendly accommodations, the building will also include windows and doors designed to allow more daylight into the building.
After the debt exclusion was approved for a special town election on May 2, the Town Council has been working with the Finance Committee to determine the wording for the order for the debt exclusion. One area of debate that came up during the council’s March 20 meeting was how much money to use from the town’s reserves: $5 million or $10 million, with the understanding that $5 million would be rebated back to the town. At that meeting it was noted that the council is expecting a rebate of $5 million on the building due to green energy incentives for the potential new building. Another concern raised was the impact on the tax rate and affordability of Amherst.
At the council’s March 27 meeting, the council voted to recommend that the Finance Committee formally look into using $10 million from reserves for the project.
The April 4 meeting
Before jumping into the public hearing over the debt exclusion order, Finance Director Sean Mangano provided an update on the previous meeting, which was covered in the April 6 edition of The Reminder here: https://archives.thereminder.com/localnews/amherst/amherst-town-council-continues-school-debt-exclusi/.
During his presentation, Mangano noted that the order under consideration was the use of $5 million from reserves as opposed to the $10 million option. With that option, homeowners will see their property taxes increase by $451 per year.
Following Mangano’s brief update, the council opened the floor to public comment for the public hearing portion of the discussion.
Residents voiced a mix of opinions about how to move forward with the project, commenting on the use of either with the $5 million or $10 million from reserves, as well as voicing concerns about the entire process and future projects that could be impacted, including the library project, the fire station project and the DPW building project. Many of the speakers voiced their support of the project regardless of the amount spent from reserves.
One resident, Carol Gray, said she was concerned about how much money was being removed from the budget for capital projects.
“I am concerned that four capital projects are proceeding while teachers are on work to rule, I feel like this is fiscal mismanagement for the town. You are taking 10% from the operating budget every year to go into the capital budget. You’re shorting the operating budget to sock money away for capital projects so you don’t have to go to the public to ask their permission to do capital projects, and I find that really important,” Gray said. “You have $20 plus million in reserves and you’re pleading poverty? That’s just wrong.”
Gray added that she was concerned that the DPW and fire stations had not been brought before the public.
Another commenter, Amber Cano-Martin, said she was in favor of the appropriation of $10 million from reserves.
“This is gonna be a huge financial burden on our town and on people who are already struggling to make ends meet and the type of people we want to be able to stay in our town who are raising young children who are all gonna benefit from this school building,” she said.
Following the public hearing, the council then broke out into a Finance Committee meeting to further discuss the order.
During the Finance Committee meeting, Council President Lynn Greisemer proposed an alternative option to allow Town Manager Paul Bockelman to search for additional sources of funding, instead of using the $5 million in reserves, with a deadline of Nov. 30.
Griesemer noted that the first time residents will see an increase in taxes through the debt exclusion is 2025, and the actual full authorization for borrowing will not happen until as early as 2027.
“It buys a little time, there’s opportunities that we are aware of in the legislature such as attempts to change the formula and increase payment in lieu of taxes for public land, there’s other things going on in the legislature with regard to help trying to find funding for a building authority that would fund other building authorities,” she said. “It gives us an opportunity to send a message that we hear our taxpayers, we hear our renters.”
Griesemer added that this additional flexibility would allow time to sort out how to plan for other projects.
“We’d like to give some more relief for this without jeopardizing the other projects and we’d like to have some time to do that. This would also allow us to put in place some additional assistance for renters and for people who are having difficulty reaching payments for their mortgage,” she said.
While Bockelman may not be able to find an additional $5 million for this year, she said that could still be made up in future years.
Councilor Kathy Schoen, who is a member of the Finance Committee, said it was a unanimous vote to move forward with $5 million from reserves. She added that state Rep. Mindy Domb (D-Amherst) will also help the town come up with additional funding for the project.
“She stood up and she said she understands for low-income renters and people living on very restrictive income that we need to figure out some better ways of easing the burden and she personally will go out and work on this,” Schoen said.
Schoen also noted that the $451 tax increase would also be for a home that is worth about $500,000.
The committee ultimately agreed to refer Griesemer’s recommendation back to the full council with one abstention and the rest in favor.
With the recommendation approved, the full council reconvened to discuss the new order.
During the full council meeting, Councilor Ellisha Walker reintroduced her motion to take $10 million out of reserves to fund the project, taking into account the recommendation for Bockelman to look for additional funding. Walker also expressed her frustration with the process, after her motion had been pushed back for a month and town counsel KP Law was advising against additional money coming out of reserves.
“It has been yet another obstacle put in my way to figure out how we can tangibly help our residents. In my opinion a more tangible action would be to commit the reserves now and if you find more money elsewhere later, it can replenish the reserves that I’m asking to be committed tonight,” she said. “In my opinion the motion is not strong enough and there are no repercussions if it is unsuccessful.”
She added that by combining the two motions it would create a “stronger motion and create accountability.”
Councilor Andy Steinberg said requesting the additional funds out of stabilization was “not sound financial policy.”
“We are in a very difficult circumstance within the town because of numerous factors that are affecting us, including our inability to raise the kind of money that some communities have because we don’t have the extent of commercial development that other communities have and we have lands that are not taxable,” he said.
Ultimately, the council denied Walker’s motion with a 3-9 vote with one abstention.
Following the denial of Walker’s motion, she proposed two additional amendments to add more structure to the original motion by adding safety nets from reserves and rebates to back up the funding if $5 million cannot be found. Both amendments were denied.
The council approved the initial motion to allow Bockleman to search for an additional $5 million unanimously. The council also approved the debt exclusion order 12-1 with Walker voting against.
The Amherst Town Council next meets on April 24 and coverage of that meeting will appear in the May 4 edition of The Reminder.