Woodard: Time for Sudbury to Catch Up on Capital Needs

Last year Chuck Woodard said his experience in finance would be a benefit to Sudbury as a member of the Board of Selectmen.

During the Board's Jan. 14 meeting, he put that background to good use during a presentation for a long-term capital funding strategy.

The Board's vice chairman said Sudbury cannot go forward experiencing massive financial peaks and valleys while continuing to delay capital expenditures.

"Sudbury has been under-spending on its capital needs the last 10 years," he said. "It's at a point where we have to catch up."

The presentation showed a long-term capital funding strategy which would allow the town to pay off important debt in 2015.

The plan, which was created by the Capital Funding Committee, would also develop an account for other capital needs.

According to Woodard, the town's capital budget covers the purchase of capital equipment for buildings and building improvements, for example. But any purchase requires taxpayer approval.

The exception would be for small items purchased out of the $300,000 capital budget within the operating budget.

Woodard said the Committee is urging use of free cash to pay for vehicles, facilities and part of the technology upgrades at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School in FY15. The total cash amount would be just shy of $1.5 million.

"Let’s try to avoid debt other than for large projects," Woodard said. "In the past we've been so tight for money because of leasing vehicles. We need to get out of that."

The presentation also explained how capital funding for the proposed new Sudbury police headquarters would begin in FY16, while funding for upgrades for Town Hall and the Fairbank Community Center would start in FY18.

Funding for the Route 20 sewer project wouldn't begin until FY19.

According to documents supplied by Woodard, the average tax bill in Sudbury would increase by almost $800 in FY15 and almost doubled that in FY29.

Those projects, combined with projected regular capital needs, are expected to increase the capital spending impact on the average tax bill from just under $800 in fiscal 2015 to close to $1,500 by fiscal 2020. 

"I appreciate the idea of maintaining evenness in the tax bill so that it doesn’t bump up and down and people don’t have to jostle," Selectman Len Simon said. "We're looking for predictability, and this goes a long way toward that end. We're looking to preserve the town’s bonding ability. This is a very smart idea and the way to go. I think it’s a very solid, thoughtful plan."

Woodard's presentation can be found on The Town of Sudbury website.