By MARK SARDELLA
WAKEFIELD – The Finance Committee will recommend favorable action on five articles that relate to town finances at the upcoming Regular Town Meeting on Nov. 8.
The FinCom met for 50 minutes last night to discuss and vote on the articles. The hybrid meeting had most members in the first-floor conference room at Town Hall, with others participating remotely via Zoom.
In addition to dealing with the Town Meeting articles, the FinCom also heard a financial update and forecast from member Dan Sherman.
FinCom Chairman Jim Sullivan called the meeting to order at 6 p.m. He offered new Town Administrator Denise Casey an opportunity to introduce herself to the committee and asked FinCom members to briefly introduce themselves to Casey.
The committee then moved to the Town Meeting articles.
Article 2 on the warrant will ask Town Meeting to approve using just over $4 million from Free Cash to balance the FY2026 budget. It was noted that the town’s Free Cash balance currently totals more than $12 million.
The FinCom voted to recommend favorable Town Meeting action on Article 2.
The committee also voted to recommend favorable action on Article 3, which will ask Town Meeting to supplement the FY2026 Water Division budget by 225,000. No supplemental appropriation was requested for the Sewer Division budget. Public Works Director Joseph Conway was on hand to discuss the request and answer questions.
Article 4 on the Town Meeting warrant seeks voter approval to renew the Home Rule Petition allowing Wakefield to offer a property tax discount to eligible senior citizens in town. Director of Assessments Victor Santaniello was present to answer questions. He said that 227 seniors qualified in the latest round. He noted that the cost of offering the discount is borne by the remaining taxpayers and amounts to about $55 added to the average single-family home tax bill to assist local seniors that meet the eligibility requirements.
Article 5 relates to appropriating $225,000 for drainage betterment projects on Middlesex Street and Middlesex Court. As both are private ways, Town Engineer William Renault explained that the cost of the work will be repaid by the homeowners on those streets via an additional charge on their property tax bills over the next 20 years. He noted that a majority of the property owners on those streets signed a petition requesting the drainage improvements, which will resolve a longstanding flooding problem.
Town Meeting Article 6 is related to Article 5. It seeks to reclaim drainage easements that were overlooked when the town sold the Franklin School on Nahant Street. The amount allocated for Article 6 is $1.
FinCom member Dan Sherman presented an update and forecast related to the town’s finances, discussing the Free Cash, Debt Service, Stabilization and OPEB accounts.
Sherman’s explanation of the town’s recent bond rating downgrade from AAA to AA+ generated some discussion. Sherman noted that the bond rating agencies recently decided to raise the amount that municipalities should maintain in reserves from 10 percent to 15 percent of a town’s total annual budget, which has affected bond ratings for some cities and towns. Members agreed with Sherman that 15 percent was an unreasonable standard for most municipalities.
It was also noted that the additional debt that the town has incurred due to the new high school building project also contributed to the bond rating downgrade.