Southtowns Record

TB 2026-09-16 Agenda Packet

Government
Town of Boston
Board
Town Board
Meeting
Sep 16, 2026
Posted by publisher
Sep 16, 2026
Kind
Agenda packet
Topics
Budget and taxes, Zoning and land use, Public safety, Water, sewer and drainage, Parks and recreation, Audits and oversight, Roads and traffic

Original document

Same meeting

Text · page 28 of 115

Read the whole document on one page (all 115 pages, each with its own heading)

The Town’s most significant expense items for the year ended December 31, 2024 were home and
community services of $2,584,524, or 42.4 percent of total expenses, general government support of
$1,203,910, or 19.7 percent of total expenses, and public safety of $1,019,189, or 16.7 percent of total
expenses. The Town’s most significant expense items for the year ended December 31, 2023 were
transportation of $1,386,286, or 24.9 percent of total expenses, general government support of $1,019,651,
or 18.3 percent of total expenses, and home and community services of $972,895, or 17.5 percent of total
expenses.

Financial Analysis of Governmental Funds

As noted earlier, the Town uses fund accounting to ensure and demonstrate compliance with finance-related
legal requirements.
Governmental funds—The focus of the Town’s governmental funds is to provide information on near-
term inflows, outflows, and balances of spendable resources. Such information is useful in assessing the
Town’s financing requirements. In particular, unassigned fund balance may serve as a useful measure of a
government’s net resources available for discretionary use as they represent the portion of fund balance
which has not been limited to use for a particular purpose by an external party, the Town itself, or a group
of individuals that has been delegated to assign resources for use for particular purposes by the Town Board.
At December 31, 2024, the Town’s governmental funds reported combined ending fund balance of
$7,894,926, a decrease of $135,971 from the prior year fund balance of $8,030,897. Approximately 4.9
percent of this amount, $386,500 constitutes unassigned fund balance, which is available for spending at
the Town’s discretion. The remainder of fund balance is either nonspendable, restricted or assigned to
indicate that it is (1) not in spendable form, $50,284, (2) restricted for particular purposes, $4,621,163, or
(3) assigned for particular purposes, $2,836,979.
The General Fund is the chief operating fund of the Town. At the end of the current fiscal year, unassigned
fund balance of the General Fund was $1,505,816 while total fund balance decreased to $2,552,204. As a
measure of the General Fund’s liquidity, it may be useful to compare both unassigned fund balance and
total fund balance to total General Fund expenditures. Unassigned fund balance represents approximately
59.0 percent of total General Fund expenditures and other financing uses, while total fund balance
represents approximately 100.8 percent of that same amount.
The Town’s Highway—Town Wide fund ending fund balance was $1,409,265. $317,538 is restricted for
capital projects, $153,433 is reported as fund balance assigned for subsequent year’s expenditures,
$171,261 is assigned to encumbrances, and $751,991 is assigned to specific use. During the year ended
December 31, 2024, the Highway—Town Wide fund balance increased $163,818.
The Town’s Fire Protection Fund ending fund balance increased $181,376 to an ending fund balance of
$2,779,415. $2,601,939 is restricted for LOSAP, $26,773 is assigned for subsequent year’s expenditures,
and $150,703 is assigned to specific use.
The Town’s Water Fund increased $151,514 to an ending fund balance of $1,137,752. $387,651 is restricted
for debt, $68,788 is assigned for subsequent year’s expenditures, and $681,313, is assigned to specific use.
The Town’s Garbage and Refuse fund ending fund balance increased $65,528 to an ending fund balance of
$200,742 and the entire amount of fund balance, of $200,742 is assigned to specific use.

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