New Financial Impact Form Fulfills Charter Mandate

By John Voket

Newtown Finance Director Robert Tait has forged an apparent missing link in the town’s charter-mandated process of requesting special appropriations. According to Mr Tait, locally, special appropriations encompass virtually every Capital Improvement Plan request.

On August 19, the Legislative Council heard from the finance director about an electronic financial impact statement that he created, which will be used going forward for all special appropriation requests. Mr Tait planned to make the electronic spreadsheet document available immediately, specifically for several department heads who will be making CIP requests at the upcoming finance board meeting August 27.

According to Section 6-100 in the local Charter, the council must have a financial impact statement submitted for any special appropriation requested, regardless of whether the project or purchase is being underwritten by taxpayer dollars, grants, a gift, bonding, or from the operating budget.

“No appropriation should be made before the legislative council receives a financial impact statement,” Mr Tait said, reading from the Charter a few hours before his council presentation Wednesday. He said the impact statement should always originate from the requesting department, and that the Charter specifically includes the Board of Education’s requests.

He said that the statements must be submitted to the Boards of Selectmen and Finance. While the charter stipulates that the council must approve the impact statement document for municipal requests, it does not make such a stipulation for the school district.

Mr Tait said, however, that he will strongly recommend the single template be used universally between the town and school district. He mentioned that the district’s interim business manager is already using a CIP request form that Mr Tait designed earlier this year.

“My goal was to make the document as simple as possible. And since it is an electronic Excel document, the computer does all the calculations down to figuring the mill rate impact of each proposed expenditure.”

While the addition of this required electronic form will not specifically make Mr Tait’s work any easier, he said requiring the financial impact form to be used consistently will serve the purpose of bringing all departments into conformity with the Charter.

“Even if it wasn’t in the Charter, it would be a good thing to have,” the finance director said. Mr Tait said while the Charter requirement preceded his employment with the town, once he learned about the stipulation he went searching through computer records to try and determine if such a form already existed.

“But up to now, I haven’t been able to find one, so I just put this new one together,” he said.