Asleep at the Switch — Weston Financial Management and Your Taxes

Residents should not have to settle for the consequences of too little attention to financial management by the Select Board, the School Committee and the Finance Committee. Weston property taxes are far higher than neighboring comparable towns – whether measured by the average or median household, or per capita – as are Weston’s levels of debt and unfunded liabilities. Our per-pupil expenditures are now about 30% higher than in similar districts, despite school performance that is roughly in line. These tax and financial burdens contribute to our underperforming real estate value appreciation compared to those same towns. 

These outcomes don’t just happen. They are the result of a decade or more of a flawed budget process, too little active management of spending, and too little attention paid to the way other towns like ours plan, track and measure the activities that comprise town services. With time, those shortcomings have become part of our governance culture.

Town boards and committees are mostly comprised of smart, accomplished people who mean well and devote considerable amounts of their time on our behalf, and we are grateful for their service. However, several longtime management practices, processes and organizational deficiencies, plus some unfortunate leadership attitudes, combine to create the kinds of outcomes we’ve come to accept as routine.

Minimal Analysis and No Benchmarking

Weston budgeting and financial oversight consists largely of accounting rather than true planning and analysis, as found in similar towns and the corporate world. For example, the recent Fire Department study and the new “management indicators” developed by the Town do not even attempt to compare Weston departmental performance or costs to any other comparable towns, so there is no reasonable way for us to determine what may be out of line. This is true of major Town departments and the Schools. The Schools, in particular, have a long history of strategies without metrics, program spending that is not clearly linked to specific academic goals, and no reassessment of programs that aren’t working or have outlived their intended purpose.

No Long-Term Financial Plan

In a recent Focus on Weston article, we pointed out that after three years and tens of thousands of dollars in consulting fees, the Town still does not have a working long-term financial model, as was promised several times by the Town Manager and the Select Board. The point of having a longer-range planning tool is not to simply translate next year’s spending into taxes, but to give us context and guidelines for annual budgeting and decisions about major capital expenditures as soon as those needs appear on the horizon, and to facilitate discussion.

What we need is (i) a working model, (ii) that has been independently vetted, (iii) with a reasonable set of base case assumptions, and (iv) a set of thoughtful and well-developed alternative scenarios to test the impact of today’s decisions on the future financial strength of the Town. Because we don’t have such a tool, we don’t really make informed decisions on annual spending levels or capital projects. When voters are asked to consider major new programs and projects, it is impossible for us to understand them in context, or to understand each of their priorities, so we end up doing everything. We just hope that it all works out in the end.

Bottom-Up, “Level Service” Budgeting

Most organizations – public and private – start the budgeting process with a sense of what new or modified initiatives are required to achieve the longer-term goals that are important for their success, and considering what is affordable. We, and especially the Schools, don’t budget that way. Because there is no long-term planning framework, the Town and Schools develop annual proposed budgets taking the previous year, and adjusting for increased costs plus additional programs and additional staffing. The Select Board calls this “level service” budgeting, but it is really “level plus other stuff”, with no meaningful attempt to find efficiencies or retire obsolete programs or services, or prioritize projects.

When we, as voters, are presented with plans for a new Fire House, Middle School renovations, water management projects and affordable housing projects, how will we know what solutions are both effective and responsible? We probably can’t, so we are forced to trust the attitudes, perspectives, and judgments of the Select Board. For their part, the Select Board is not interested in oversight or feedback, having eliminated the annual Budget Hearing a few years ago.

Attitudes

All of these concerns have been shared with the Select Board, the School Committee, and the Finance Committee. Their collective response is best summarized by the comment of one Select Board member, who said that Weston residents “just don’t care.” One former School Committee member once said in a public meeting, “we’re all rich, who cares?”. That is not stewardship.

These are not isolated comments, but a pattern of leadership behavior that should be concerning to all of us. The most recent example is the Select Board’s intentional dismissal of the Town Meeting vote to increase the size of the Board. Ignoring resident wishes and concerns, relitigating issues that have already been decided, and moving ahead in defiance of voters when the vote doesn’t go their way are not examples of good governance.

Where is the Finance Committee?

Weston’s Town By-laws established the Finance Committee as the residents’ independent watchdog, somewhat akin to the Congressional Budget Office. Their oversight responsibilities extend to “all financial and other questions coming before the Town for action or affecting the interests of the Town.” To ensure independence, members are appointed by the Moderator, who is up for reelection annually rather than being otherwise appointed or elected.

The Finance Committee is not “asleep at the switch”; it is not really at the switch at all. The Committee has an important advisory role in Town government, but rarely exercises it effectively and rarely criticizes proposals related to budgets or large capital projects. Town budgets and most major projects are routinely endorsed. In the six months since the early-May Annual Town Meeting, the Finance Committee has met only three times – once in July to rubber-stamp some legally required accounting transfers, once to discuss the Warrant Articles for the September Special Town Meeting (without having done meaningful analysis beforehand), and once recently, only to interview candidates for an opening created by the resignation of a member. 

Weston’s Broken Social Contract

None of us should have to wade through the Town’s opaque budget documents and nomenclature (“free cash”, “unused levy capacity”, etc.). Nor should we have to wonder about the processes and practices that affect our collective financial future. We should be able to pay our property taxes and benefit from the Town’s amenities, trusting that our Town leaders and hired Town officials are managing our collective municipal affairs effectively, efficiently, and prudently on our behalf. We don’t believe this is the case.

The Town’s inattention to fundamental financial management practices means that the Social Contract between Town leaders and Town residents is broken, and that should not be acceptable.