Finance Committee maps year-long project list, eyes 40B and JST impacts

WESTON — May 30, 2019 — Weston Finance Committee maps multi-project workplan as 40B wave looms. At the May 30 meeting, the newly elected town moderator, identified as Doug, told members he wants the committee to pick "a project each year" and named employee health insurance and per-pupil school costs as ripe candidates; three seats held by members identified as James, John and Lisa are up for reappointment by early July. Council on Aging Director Minyan Murray and board Vice Chair Marge Ackerman presented a UMass Boston needs assessment surveying 4,200 residents 55-plus at a 29 percent response rate, finding 14 percent of respondents report household income under $25,000 and that 75 percent are very or completely satisfied with COA programs. Members assigned themselves to track three pending Chapter 40B proposals — 180 units at 751 Boston Post Road, 275 at 518 South Avenue, and 150 at 104 Boston Post Road — and to examine a resident-requested split tax rate, with assessor Eric Josephson estimating a maximum shift would move roughly $1.7 million from residential to the town's $281 million commercial base. "We are as ignorant as everyone else in the town" on 40B financial impacts, one member said. The next meeting is July 11.