Post date: Mar 08, 2019 4:35:23 PM
Under the Municipal Modernization Act, a town can dedicate up to 25% of a particular revenue source to a stabilization fund. Stabilization funds can be created for any lawful appropriation purpose. Expenditure from stabilization funds does require a 2/3 vote at Town Meeting. When a new fund is created and a source dedicated to it, it must remain in existence for at least 3 years. However, spending of balances can begin with Town Meeting approval once there is a balance. Given that marijuana excise revenues are a new revenue source of an indeterminate amount and subject to great variability over the next few years, I'm thinking that we should consider going through the process at Town Meeting of dedicating 25% of marijuana excise tax revenue to a new stabilization fund with a purpose of funding Recreation and Public Facilities. It is reasonable to expect that we will be considering investing more in some sort of recreational facility improvements in the near term and having this fund could jump start our efforts in a way that does not completely mean tax increases or reallocating existing dollars to the purpose. Right now, in terms of longer term, higher cost needs for us to save, the two areas of concern for me are recreation and Town Hall. Town Hall is a more distant need and I certainly can't make a pressing argument now, but at some point in the medium term, we will likely want to consider improvements to systems, potential fire suppression and reprogramming the Police Department space. I see little downside and significant upside to managing this new source of revenue prudently, allocating a portion for savings and retaining three quarters of the revenue to offset general fund taxation.
At last meeting we left this an open question. Unless there is a change in thinking, I'm inclined to shelve this idea. There isn't a compelling reason to have to pursue this in the coming year, nor do I think we need to have an extended conversation if we're not all in agreement about the merits of this. We have not budgeted a significant amount of revenue from this in the coming year. Thus, any new revenues will fall to the bottom line at year and and be available to us as Free Cash to deploy in the coming year. So, next year, we may be in the spot to consider applying some of these new funds for specific purposes, putting them in the existing stabilization fund, creating a new fund, or carrying them forward in less restrictive free cash for another year.