Finance Committee

The Finance Committee is the principal financial advisor to the Town Meeting. It is a deliberative rather than a decision-making body. The Washington Finance Committee is comprised of five town residents elected by the voters to staggered three-year terms. Finance Committee responsibilities are set forth in State law (Massachusetts General Law Chapter 39, §16).

The primary function of the Finance Committee is reviewing departmental budgets and submitting a balanced annual town budget to Town Meeting. All municipal officers authorized to spend money must annually provide the Finance Committee with estimates of how much funding will be needed for the proper maintenance of the departments under their jurisdiction. Those estimates are then reviewed by the Finance Committee, amended as necessary, and incorporated into a draft annual town budget. The draft budget is reviewed with the Select Board and again amended as necessary before forming, along with non-budgetary articles, a warrant to be voted on by the town’s registered voters at the Annual Town Meeting in May.

From time to time situations arise after the Annual Town Meeting that require appropriations or transfers of funds during the fiscal year. The Finance Committee also reviews and makes recommendations to the Select Board relative to those financial actions resulting in a warrant for a Special Town Meeting and voted on by the town.

The Finance Committee is also responsible for the management of a Reserve Fund. The Reserve Fund is an allocation of monies within the annual town budget that may be expended at the sole discretion of the Finance Committee. Reserve Funds are provided for in Massachusetts General Law to ”provide for extraordinary or unforeseen expenditures.” The Department of Revenue has determined that Reserve Fund transfers are appropriate to provide for urgent or unforeseen expenditures that could not have been anticipated before the Annual Town Meeting; and/or to allow immediate expenditures of funds in the event of an emergency when the delay of having to call a Special Town Meeting could be potentially harmful. It is also understood that a Reserve Fund should not be used to reverse a vote of Town Meeting or as a “backdoor” means of increasing a budget allocation.